Paper Voice
by ChainedtotheWorld
Summary: Not just another YYH fanfic. This has two girls who just graduated being swept into a world of mayhem at almost every turn. When will they get a chance to relax and enjoy this strange world?
1. Chapter 1

Paper Voice

A Yu Yu Hakusho Fanfic

Chapter One

Catherine and Katrina were almost done packing up when Catherine's cell rang, "Hello?" she answered. Katrina stood and listened to one end of the conversation. "Yea, we're almost done... Would it be alright if we spent one last night here?... Yes, I know we need to be back tomorrow. We will don't worry... okay bye," Catherine hung up and turned to her best friend. They stared at each other for a second then continued packing. Both Catherine and Katrina were seniors and it was the end of the year, they'd be graduating in a couple of days. Catherine's family was moving from their small crowded house into a huge farm house. Once Catherine and Katrina were done packing they sighed in unison and laughed. "We should say goodbye to this old place, Katrina," Catherine said.

"Yeah, I'm gonna miss this place. We had so many crazy things happen here."

"Hmm... like that time when we were twelve and we were walking the creepizoid home?"

"Oh yeah! And you turned around after we'd started heading back and called my name..."

"You turned around and went wide eyed and we screamed and took off running all the way to my house..."

"We ran in, locked the front door then upstairs and locked your door and hid under the covers. I could swear that the snow rolling towards us had a face in it and was like the rolling sand from the _Mummy_.*"

"Yep, or the time we went to the park and no matter where you stood the moss I was flinging still hit you?*"

"Hahahahaah! Huh... Yea, good times."

"So, let's get to reminiscing in other parts of the house now," Catherine finished.

They left her old basement bedroom and headed up to the main floor. Sharing stories of different rooms; some funny, some sad. Eventually they grew tired and went back down to the basement to sleep. Catherine set up the air mattress and then collapsed on it, Katrina following her lead. They quickly fell asleep... later Katrina was roughly shaken awake, "Mhmmm, what?" she asked annoyed.

"Shh... I thought I heard someone in the house," Catherine whispered. Immediately after she said that the girls heard the basement door open. Katrina jumped up and tuned on the light. Catherine stared up at her in fear and Katrina stared back. "I- I thought you locked the doors!" Katrina whispered.

"Of course I didn't! I left the hall light on, besides I grew up here. We never locked the door and nobody ever bothered us. I did lock the-"

Catherine was cut off by a knock on her bedroom door. Carefully she crept over and locked it, shivering in fear she walked over to Katrina and they curled up under Catherine's bedroom window. There was another knock and Catherine whispered, "Hello?" Katrina glared at her. "What?" Catherine whispered. The knocking stopped and the girls heard footsteps heading back up the stairs. They waited a little longer then got up and headed to the door. Catherine unlocked it and carefully opened it, there was no one there. Closing the door she turned back to Kartina and sighed. They turned back to the mattress and screamed. Sitting on the mattress as if it had been there the entire time was a package with their pen names on it.

"H-how did that get there," Katrina asked. Catherine went over to it, pulled out a pocket knife and opened it. Inside was a lot of packing peanuts. Catherine reached in and pulled some things out; a stack of foreign currency, and a note in the same foreign language. "What the heck?" Catherine said, "How're we supposed to read this?"

"Don't you have your cell, Cat? You get the internet, get on and find a translator on Google or something," Katrina suggested.

"Oh, yea, DUH...," Catherine replied as she pulled out her cell and got online. "Okay, it says:

'Dear, Cho Miki and Sophia West;

My name is Gensu. You're probably wondering why a stranger is trying to contact you. The answer is simple, if you choose to meet me at the below address. You have two weeks to respond.

Sincerely,

Gensu ' "

Catherine and Katrina stared at each other. The note fell to the mattress and their eyes followed it. "Hey, the money, it's in American now!" Katrina exclaimed. "Le- let's put this away, go to bed, and deal with it tomorrow, maybe it will turn out to be a weird dream," Catherine said. Katrina nodded in agreement and they put everything away and went to bed. Unaware of the stranger sitting not to far from Catherine's window.

-/-/-/-/-

Author's Note: End of chapter one. The asterisks in the chapter are to note that those stories were one hundred percent true, they really did happen to my friend and I. The names have been changed for protection reasons. This story originally came from my friend, she came up with it and we were the main characters just for the fun of it. We didn't originally intend to turn it into a real story but I couldn't resist so here it is. I am the only one working on it now but for the beginning of the story a lot of the ideas came from my friend and I have tweaked them because of horrible memory on my part. Later on the story will transition into only my ideas and I will alert you to it. **Please review. I would love to know what you think of my story. And if you like it I have more work posted at .com** Thank you for reading!

P.S. Sorry this chapter is so short I'll try and make the other ones longer. 3 (=^^=)


	2. Chapter 2

Paper Voice

A YYH fanfic

Chapter Two

The next morning Katrina forgot about the previous night's events and rolled up the air mattress. Catherine on the other hand saved the address in her phone and put the box under the driver's seat of the car. After everything was packed into the car Catherine and Katrina drove to Catherine's new temporary home. "I can't believe we're finally graduating." Katrina said, bumping her head on the ceiling of the car. Katrina stands at 5' 7" with long red hair, while Catherine is 5' 61/2" with long dark brown, almost black, hair. "Yep, then we can finally get away from our siblings for a while," Catherine smiled.

"Yep, that's a definite plus," Katrina replied giggling with joy and excitement.

When Catherine and Katrina finally made it to Catherine's new house Katrina nearly fell out of the car in excitement. "THIS is your new house?" she screamed. "Yep," Catherine replied, as she was greeted by two big dogs and a few of the many cats her family owned. Catherine bent down and petted them all as Katrina opened the trunk and started unloading it. It was a beautiful Saturday in autumn, as Catherine joined Katrina the dogs ran off to play in the piles leaves. Catherine's mom came out and started helping as well; when they had finished putting things in the house where they belonged Catherine lead Katrina back to the car and pulled out the strange package. Katrina's smile faded, "oh, I thought that was just a dream," she said disappointedly.

"Nope, it was real. After we graduate I'm gonna go check out what this is about."

"Are you crazy? What if this is some creep stalker or something? You could get into trouble or worse!"

"Kat, calm down, I'm not stupid, you're coming with me." Katrina stared at her crazy friend for a long time then said, "You're stupid."

"Kat!"

"I'm serious, Cat, this is seriously dangerous."

"Don't worry I'm going to tell my mom, you can tell your parents if-"

"HECK NO! 1.) I'm NOT going 2.) My parents would kill me if I did go and they found out about it."

"Well... if you don't g with me I'll just go by myself."

Katrina's face went blank, "I. Hate. You..."

"I KNEW you'd come with me!" Catherine cheered as she gave Katrina a giant rib crushing hug.

-/-/-/-/-

The graduation went smoothly and the party Catherine's family threw was a lot of fun. When it was over Catherine and Katrina went to talk to Catherine's mother. "Hey, Mom, can we talk to you about something real quick?"

Catherine's mom felt the same as Katrina did but less against it because she knew Catherine would go regardless of what she said and that maybe just maybe if Katrina was there then Catherine wouldn't get into too much trouble. So they planned to leave the next morning. Katrina's parents would just think Catherine and Katrina had gone out to get things sorted out at the college. Katrina pestered Catherine about her plan the entire way. When they got to the address they saw they had arrived at a warehouse in the middle of nowhere. Catherine smiled goofily when Katrina glared at her. "Told you this was a bad idea," she grumbled, but grudgingly got out of the car. They walk into the warehouse; there was a desk in the middle of the room. a secretary looking woman was sitting at the desk typing. "May I help you?" she asked without looking up. "Uh... Yes, we're here to see Gensu," Catherine replied. The woman picked up a phone and made a call. When she had hung up the phone she waved the girls over. "Go straight down the hall and make a left, then another left, Gensu's office is the fifth door on the right."

Katrina thanked the woman as Catherine headed down the hall, "Cat, wait up," Katrina called. Catherine stopped until Katrina had caught up then started off again. Reaching the end of the hall Catherine turned left and nearly ran into someone, "oh, sorry," she said. The person nodded and continued walking. Katrina turned and stared then jogged after Catherine again.

"Did that person look strange to you?" she asked.

"Strange how?"

"He- I. Don't. Know..."

They made another left then counted the doors until they reached the fifth one; Catherine opened it. Katrina was a little annoyed by Catherine's rudeness but followed her in. Inside there were two high backed chairs in front of a desk with another high back chair behind it facing the wall. "Take a seat please," a young man's voice commanded from the other side of the chair. Katrina reluctantly sat in the chair on the left and Catherine stood in front of the desk. The chair turned and sitting in it was a tall handsome young man, probably in his early twenties, with long purple hair and dark purple eyes. "Hello, ladies my name is Gensu. I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you here. Well I'll get right to the point. We have a job for you. It may sound a little strange but you will be paid very well for your services."

"What kind of services are you asking for?" Katrina asked stonily.

"That's the strange part; we want you to go through a portal to another dimension."

"I didn't know we were dealing with druggies, Cat, let's get out of here."

"Wait! Please listen, I'm not on drugs, this is real. You see we discovered a portal a long time ago leading to all sorts of places," Gensu said quickly.

"What are you talking about?" Catherine asked curiously.

"This portal is very strange, we don't understand it so we need volunteers to explore it and report back what they find."

"Why do you need us, why not use robots?" Katrina asked, trying to fight her growing curiosity.

"Because we did use robots, at first, and they always got destroyed as soon as they entered the portal. So we-"

"DESTROYED? And you want us to go through this portal?" Katrina shouted jumping up and nearly losing her balance as the chair tilted backwards and fell.

"We've had plenty of other volunteers who've gone and they're fine. It's just that the portal leads to multiple portals or something, we're not quite sure. Everyone we send in gets sent to a different place; we decided to see if you would go because you two are writers. We hoped you'd each keep a journal of your adventures and send us regular updates. You will be supplied with everything you need as well as receive a good sum of money for it."

"Sounds cool to me! Do you know where we'll be going? And will it alter us?" Catherine asked.

"We can't say what the place you'll end up in will be like, as far as alteration goes there's only a two percent chance that you will be altered. You should be able to communicate fluently with the natives of that dimension but beyond that you shouldn't have to worry about any changes."

"Well that good, let's go, Kat!" Catherine shouted.

"Can we get some of the money sent to our families as well?" Katrina asked, giving in both to her curiosity of this idiocy and knowing she needed to keep Catherine from getting herself into too much trouble.

"Yes, your families will get some of your 'paycheck' and not even know you're gone. We discovered time flows differently between dimensions. You could be gone for years and it would only pass as a few months here. Your families will simply think you're away at college and you will get cell phones that work interdimensionally so you can keep them from getting suspicious. So, will you go?"

"YES!" Catherine screamed. Katrina sighed, "If Cat's going then so am I. Can't let her have all the fun can I?"

Gensu nodded, heading to the door to lead them to the portal. When they were just outside the room with the portal Gensu gave them each a back pack. They were surprisingly light, yet Gensu told them the packs carried all the supplies they would need. "One last question," Katrina asked, "if the portal leads to somewhere different for everyone, then how do Cat and I know we'll end up in the same place?"

"Ah, I forgot, thank you; we found that if you go together- at the same time- you'll end up together in the other dimension," Gensu replied while motioning them forward. Catherine grabbed Katrina's hand and they went through the door jumping strait into the portal.

Traveling through the portal wasn't all that different from falling asleep and then waking up, it just happened. One minute Catherine and Katrina were in the warehouse, the next they were in some forest full of weird trees. "Wonder where we are?" Catherine said, Katrina shrugged. "Maybe we should-" Catherine was cut off by a loud boom not to far away. "Let's check it out!" she exclaimed and headed in the direction it came from.

"Are you serious?" Katrina called chasing after her best friend. "There's a loud boom in a strange place and your best idea is to check it out?" Catherine was too far ahead to hear Katrina so she started running until Catherine stopped and Katrina bumped into her. "Hey, why'd you-"

"Shh!" Catherine said and ducked into some bushed. Seeing why Catherine ducked Katrina followed. In the clearing was a huge lizard-man... thing, and fighting it were three very familiar- the Katrina and Catherine at least- guys: Hiei, Yusuke and Kurama. "Do you think we should help them?" Catherine whispered.

"How? We're humans, weak humans I might add-"

"I'm not weak!"

"-HUMANS and they're DEMONS! I think they can handle it. Besides if we're to observe, not interfere, and we'd just get in the way." Katrina whispered back.

Catherine started getting up when the lizard thing came out of nowhere and bowled her over taking a huge bite out of her shoulder, decided she tasted good and clamped down harder. Catherine screamed and tried to fight back; Katrina panicked and yanked her pack off reaching into it begging for a gun or some other useful weapon. Her hand came out with the former and she shot the head of the lizard thing. The bullet ricochet, whizzed past her arm and grazed it before striking in a tree somewhere; that got the beasts attention and it turned to her its meal hanging limply in its mouth. "Hey, Lizard breath!" someone shouted then there was a blast of light and the lizard exploded. Guts rained down all over Katrina and Catherine who had landed on the ground. Katrina ran over to her and dropped to her knees too stunned to do anything else as Yusuke and Kurama ran over to help. "...bandages?" was what Katrina heard a few seconds later snapping her out of her daze. "Wh- what?"

"I said, 'Do you have any bandages?'" Kurama repeated.

Katrina reached for her bag and grimaced, looking at her right arm she realized that the bullet had hit her; she ignored it and grabbed her bag anyway reaching inside intent on finding bandages. "He- here," she said when she found them. Kurama took them without looking at her. Katrina stood up and stumbled then puked and nearly collapsed again as Yusuke caught her. "Looks like you got injured too," he said. Gently he sat her back against a tree and snagged some bandages from Kurama. Once the girls were bandaged Kurama carefully picked up Catherine and Yusuke helped Katrina stand and they quickly headed through another portal. When they went through the portal they had arrived outside of an apartment door, Yusuke leaned Katrina against the wall and unlocked the door. He reached out to grab Katrina again but she brushed him away, "I'll be okay, but what about Cat?" Katrina glanced nervously at her unconscious friend as they headed inside.

"She'll be okay..." that's all Kurama would say.

Yusuke suggested that Katrina sit on the couch and headed with Kurama down the hall, and quickly returned. "So, who are you guys?" he asked.

"My name's Katrina and the unconscious idiot is my best friend, Catherine." I replied dryly, Yusuke smirked. Katrina already knew who he was and guessed they were in his apartment but she asked anyway, "and you are?"

"I'm Yusuke and the red head is Kurama. Where are you from, America? You speak fluent Japanese but with an American accent, and most Japanese don't have naturally red hair like Kurama."

"Yes, Cat and I are from America. Um... may I ask where we were and what was the thing that attacked us?" Kurama entered the room as I posed my questions and said, "We can't really talk about that at the moment Yusuke and I need to discuss something first. Excuse us please."

"The demon world? Is that where we were?" Katrina queried. Yusuke paused mid getting up off of the couch so his butt was in Katrina's face when she glanced up towards Kurama. She would have laughed if the situation weren't so serious. "What... well..." Yusuke tired to answer as he straightened up and glanced at Kurama. Katrina couldn't see his face but judging by the nod Kurama gave she assumed the look was one that said, 'should we tell her?' Yusuke sat back down and stared at Katrina, "How much do you know about the demon world?"

"Not, much... but if you're willing to listen- and I'm sure you'll think I'm crazy- I can explain how Cat and I ended up there."

Kurama came over and sat down in a chair across from Katrina, she got a little self-conscious because she thought he was very handsome. Back home she had a slight crush on him when she saw the show and Catherine had a HUGE crush on Hiei. She resisted the urge to look away and repositioned herself so she could look at both Yusuke and Kurama. The movement made her grimace as her arm cried out in defiance reminding her it had only been bandaged. A wave of nausea followed and she jumped up, Yusuke told her where the bathroom was before she could ask and she ran in and started puking into the toilet.

When she was done retching she looked at herself and realized she was still covered in giant lizard guts and had sat on Yusuke's couch and probably tracked the guts all over the place.

"Are you oaky?" A soft voice asked; Katrina looked up to see Kurama standing in the doorway with a concerned look on his face. Katrina lowered the toilet seat and lid with a shaky hand, flushed the toilet and slowly got up. She was shaking all over now but tried to nod her head. "You can tell us your story after you've cleaned up," Kurama said.

Katrina had a nice hot shower and her clothes were almost dry by the time she was done, she stayed locked in the bathroom until her own clothes were dry politely refusing to borrow Yusuke's. When they were dry Kurama handed them to her with the door barely opened. She thanked him and quickly got dressed, then left the bathroom completely prepared to clean up the mess she had made only to discover that it had already been cleaned up and that Keiko had dropped by. Katrina nearly ran into her on her way to the kitchen to get some water. "Oh, hello, you must be Katrina; Yusuke told me about you and your friend, she's doing fine by the way. Catherine is awake and has already told us everything up to her falling unconscious; I'm Keiko by the way. Do you need something?"

"Uh... what was... oh yeah, I was going to get some water. I assume you cleaned up the mess I left. I'm really sorry about that I wasn't thinking. I was planning on cleaning it up."

"That's okay it wasn't your fault and yes I cleaned it up as well as your clothes." Katrina flushed realizing how embarrassing it would have been if the guys had washed her undergarments. Keiko led her to the kitchen, got her a glass of water and inspected her arm where she'd accidently shot herself. "Catherine didn't mention this what happened?" Keiko asked with severe motherly concern.

"Oh, I shot the monster that was trying to eat Cat the bullet ricocheted grazing my arm. Actually now that you mention it feels kinda numb now."

"That's not good, it's all swollen up, the bullet didn't enter your arm did it?" Katrina shook her head as Keiko gently turned her arm this way and that. "I think I'm going to get Kurama to take a look at this; you stay put." Keiko left and quickly came back with Kurama, Yusuke and even Catherine.

"Hey, Cat, good to see you're finally up; they wouldn't let you sleep all day would they?" Katrina teased.

"Shut up, Kat," Catherine replied, Yusuke gave an inquisitive look and Katrina said, "My name's Katrina: K-A-T-R-I-N-A so she calls me Kat for short K-A-T. Her name's Catherine C-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E so I call her Cat as well only spelled differently C-A-T."

"Ah, so you're the Cat Sisters," Yusuke teased.

"Yep, and Catherine has a LOT of cats back home." Katrina giggled and Yusuke burst out laughing.

Kurama had been taking care of Katrina's arm the entire time and was bandaging it up before she even realized it. Katrina glanced at Catherine and asked her with her eyes, 'did you tell them that in our world they're a TV show?' Catherine smiled and shook her head. Katrina sat back in her seat and relaxed slowly falling asleep while the others talked and asked questions about herself and Catherine.


	3. Chapter 3

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Three

Catherine and Katrina stayed the night at Yusuke's and Keiko said they should all go shopping after lunch. The girls knew she meant clothing shopping and they groaned. "What, you need clothes don't you, besides your clothes make you stand out too much. They grudgingly agreed and immediately after lunch Keiko, Catherine and Katrina followed Keiko to the train station then to the shopping center for hours of torture.

Catherine and Katrina ran around acting like little children at Disneyland rather than eighteen year olds at the mall. Keiko sighed and acted like a mother to them the entire time secretly enjoying herself because Botan was busy with work and Yukina was always at the temple or with Kuwabara. "Hey, Keiko! Is there and ice cream shop anywhere nearby?" Catherine shouted dragging Katrina with her; _poor Katrina_, Keiko thought, _Catherine's got her carrying all of our bags. _"Yes, when we're done shopping we can get ice cream," Keiko replied.

"YESSS," Catherine hissed excitedly.

"She's gonna be up all night and sleep all day tomorrow now," Katrina groaned good naturedly.

The girls wrapped up their girls day out with ice cream and Keiko took them back to Yusuke's; she would've had them stay with her but there wasn't enough room at her place. "Maybe tomorrow we can visit Genkai and you can meet everyone else," Keiko said as she unlocked the door to Yusuke's apartment for them. "That sounds cool," Katrina mumbled around the boxes and bags she was forced to carry. Keiko had offered to help her but she said she was fine. Katrina barely bought a bag and a half worth of stuff so Catherine asked her to carry her five bags worth and when Katrina obliged Catherine dumped her bags and ran around being silly until Keiko walked over and told her to settle down. Then Katrina offered to carry Keiko's bags as well so she could keep up with Catherine, at first Keiko refused saying that Katrina already had enough to carry but she insisted and Keiko gave in. So by the end of the day Keiko had seven bags of 'stuff', Catherine still had only five and Katrina only had one and a half bags along with the two boxes of stuff Keiko had bought for some thing or another.

Catherine burst into the apartment once the door was open and shouted, "HONEY, I'M HOME!" and started laughing. Keiko followed her with Katrina right behind dropping the bags on the floor where you sat to take your shoes off then shut the door. "Sheesh, is all that yours, Neko-chan?" Yusuke teased walking in to see what all the commotion was about. "Hah, hah," she replied sarcastically, "Actually only one and a half bags are mine and I wouldn't have even gotten that much if Keiko hadn't forced me to." Yusuke called Katrina 'Neko-chan' to keep the girls names strait even though Catherine's nickname was actually the correct spelling of the word. He told her that morning when she asked him about it that she was more feline like than Catherine; he called her Crazy Cat.

"Oh, while you guys were gone Botan dropped by, she said Kurama had told her about you two and that she wants to meet you," Yusuke mentioned as he helped the girls get their things into his room where they were staying. Keiko had already left so Katrina took the liberty of mentioning that Keiko had suggested going to visit Genkai and possibly meet everyone then. "That's a good idea, I'll call up the old hag tomorrow and see if she'd let us do that." Catherine was already in Yusuke's room but she had heard what he said and got really excited. Katrina entered the room and she a Catherine immediately began talking about tomorrow.

"I can't believe we're going to get to meet Botan, Genkai, and Yukina and possibly Hiei and Kuwabara as well!" Catherine whispered giddily.

"Me too, it's so cool, we've always dreamed of this but who would've thought it'd really happen?"

"I like my new nickname too, Crazy Cat, it fits. So does yours Neko-chan; we should start calling each other by the nicknames Yusuke gave us it would be fun."

"Yea, Crazy Cat, great idea. But we should get to bed so we can wake up in the morning sooner."

"I know but I'm so excited, it's like Christmas Eve."

"Yea, but Keiko wiped me out with all that shopping and then I carried everything as well, so... good night," Katrina yawned then curled up on the futon and went to sleep. But Catherine was still to wired from the ice cream and the knowledge that the next day she'd get to meet some really cool people.

The girls woke up in the morning feeling refreshed and hyper, Catherine went to the bathroom to get ready for the day and Katrina did the same when the bathroom was free. Then Catherine got an evil look in her eye and Katrina landed on the futon on the floor pinned down. "Ahh, Crazy, get off me!" she screamed happily; Catherine leaned down and smiled at her, "Make me," she teased. Katrina thrashed around on the floor trying to get her best friend off of her back when Yusuke walked by and burst out laughing. "Cat fight," he gasped between laughs. Katrina glared up at him and shouted, "Well, don't just stand there; HELP ME!" Yusuke calmed down and told her to get out of that mess herself, he wasn't going to get involved he was just a bystander enjoying the show. Katrina continued glaring at him then laughed the best she could being pinned to the floor; she started wiggling around trying to throw Catherine off balance and succeeded and pounced on her. They started rolling around on the floor play fighting with each other until Keiko showed up and told them to break it up so they could get breakfast and head to the train station. She warned them that the trip would take almost three hours so they might want to bring stuff to entertain themselves.

"We don't need notin'," Catherine piped up like a child, "Wez gots each other to entertain, we can fight... and..."

"Well, I'm definitely bringing a book with me and my mp3," Katrina interrupted.

"Ah, how'd you get books?" Catherine cried.

"I bought them yesterday, that's why I actually had an entire bag with me."

"Can I barrow one?"

"Sure, take your pick except for this one I'm reading this one right now."

After everyone had eaten and the dishes had been taken care of they headed off to the train station. For most of the trip Catherine and Katrina sat quietly and read their books; by the time they reached their stop they were done with their books so Katrina stuck them in her back pockets, they were small paperbacks, and they headed off to Genkai's. A long trek through the woods and then they reached the stairs that would take them the rest of the way up. Catherine looked up... and up... and up and collapsed staring at the clouds and endless amounts of stairs. "Ah man, we have to climb ALL those?" she complained. "Yes, it's a long walk but it's worth it in the end," Keiko encouraged. Yusuke and Katrina had already headed up and Yusuke looked back and called down, "Hey, Crazy Cat, by the time you get off your butt Neko-chan and I will already be half way to Genkai's!"

"Oh no you won't!" Catherine shouted back jumping up and running up the stairs and continuing on past them as Keiko quickly caught up with Yusuke and Katrina pulled out the book Catherine was reading and began reading it herself as she walked up the stairs.

Not too long after they started up again they found Catherine fifty steps ahead, hands on knees, bent over panting. "Shouldn't have run," Katrina teased passing her.

"Oh- Shut... gah.. UP!" Catherine replied breathlessly. Katrina smirked and kept her nose in her book and her pace steadily going up. "So, who are we going to be meeting?" Catherine asked once she'd caught her breath and was walking with Yusuke and Keiko. "Botan said she'd be there, and Genkai and Yukina will be too, Kuwabara will probably be there, and Kurama said he'd come over after work. Hiei, you probably won't get to meet him; he comes and goes as he pleases. Look we're almost there, race you, Crazy Cat!" Yusuke finished as he took off up the remaining thirty steps. Katrina was waiting at the top not at all tired when everyone else caught up and they headed through the gate together.

"Keiko, Yusuke!" a high cheerful voice called out, followed by a tall girl with blue hair pulled into a ponytail. "Hey, Botan, it's great to see you again its be weeks. You've been so busy with work right?" Keiko asked as Botan ran over and glomped her and Yusuke together. When she finally let them go she turned to meet the new comers she'd heard about the other day. Yusuke had told her about them and their strange story, it puzzled her to no end so she told Koenma about it and he asked her to meet them and try and find out as much as she could about them. "Hello there, my name's Botan and you two must be Catherine and Katrina? Who's who?"

"I'm Katrina and this is Catherine, but Yusuke calls me Neko-chan and her Crazy Cat. Personally I think he could've come up with a better nickname than that though."

"I agree, he's usually so much better at it; oh well, come on you need to meet everyone else," Botan grappled Katrina and Catherine's wrists and dragged them to the temple. She felt a strange tingling sensation at her finger tips when she did, like they weren't quite human, and they had a different scent about them too.

Katrina saw the veranda and couldn't wait to hang upside down over the edge, so she pulled away from Botan and threw her legs over and did just that. Botan looked at her and then laughed and joined her, " I never thought of doing this before, it's a lot of fun," she said. Catherine joined them as Keiko headed inside to let everyone know they had arrived and to come meet the Cat Sisters. Yukina walked out and smiled at the Cat-bats hanging from the veranda and introduced herself and Kuwabara who was right behind her. Shortly after the introductions Genkai came out and Botan righted herself on the railing before Genkai walked over and knocked Catherine and Katrina off. They both landed painfully on their backs but began laughing as they got up and met Genkai properly and apologized for being rude. "You two aren't human," she said bluntly. The girls stared at each other in confusion and Catherine replied, "Last time I check I was. What do you mean we aren't human? If we aren't human then what are we?"

"You're demons." Katrina looked at Catherine and said, "Whelp, I guess the two percent Gensu mentioned happened to us, huh, Cat?"

Catherine stood a giant smile growing on her face, "We're... demons? SWEET! What type of demons are we? What are our powers? Do you know?"

"Yes, I know, you are a shadow demon, a very rare breed, nearly extinct. And your red headed friend over there is a fire fox demon."

Katrina and Catherine stared at each other stunned and excited at the same time. "They're demons?" Keiko asked, "That's strange, what are we going to do now?"

"Now, *sigh* they will have to stay with me and train to use their powers properly. Great now I have more annoying little brats to deal with, I thought I could finally retire in peace." Genkai mumbled. The girls looked at each other and shrugged, then just for the heck of it, Katrina punched Catherine in the shoulder, jumped the veranda and ran into the woods, Catherine quick on her heels laughing and chasing after her. Keiko called for them to come back and prepared to chase after them but was stopped when Genkai told her to let them be. They had plenty to discuss and she felt they'd get more done without the Brats hanging around constantly asking questions. So Katrina ran for her life from Catherine and they had a wonderful time running around in the woods while everyone else gathered to talk about them. Kurama came after work like he said and was brought up to date on what was going on.

Eventually Katrina got tired of running around and collapsed on the soft grass to stare up at the clouds she quickly realized that Catherine wasn't nearby. Sitting up she called for her friend and waited... no reply, getting up she climbed a tree to see if she could figure out where she was and maybe catch site of Catherine. Not too far to the right of her was the temple but she couldn't see anyone else anywhere. _Maybe she just went back to the temple or she's wandering around lost somewhere still having fun and she'll eventually find her way back. Besides I highly doubt Genkai's going to let Cat wander around after dark. I'll just go back to the temple and see if she's there, if not then Yusuke or somebody will go looking for her. Nothing to worry about, _Katrina reassured herself as she climbed down the tree and headed back to the temple.

Catherine wasn't there but Kurama was and everyone was just relaxing when Katrina got back. It was getting late so Katrina went to talk to Genkai about finding Catherine.


	4. Chapter 4

Paper Voice

A Yu Yu Hakusho fanfic

Chapter Four

Catherine chased Katrina around for a while until she lost her and decided to wander around and see if any interesting creatures lived in the forest. She walked aimlessly for a while when she came across a goblin looking creature fishing in a stream; he appeared to be having no luck though. Catherine walked up to him and he jumped up and thrust a net into her hands, " " he said something that she couldn't understand and gestured from the net to the stream. Catherine guessed he wanted her to try and fish for him so she set up the net carefully and waited. _I wish I had a book to read_, she thought, _I wonder where Kat is right now? Humph, she's probably wondering the same thing about me. Probably worry that I'm in trouble too, guess she'll send somebody after me since it's getting late. Ah, the net's filling up! _Catherine jumped up to take care of the net and the goblin started bouncing around squealing, once Catherine had gotten the net on shore and shut tight the goblin grabbed her wrist and started leading her somewhere. She adjusted her grip on the net picking it up and obediently followed. The goblin stopped in a hollow surrounded by trees not too far from the stream and shouted gibberish up into the trees. Catherine looked up to see and entire village in the branches of the trees all around her, she dropped the fish on the ground and goblins came pouring out of the tree forts. Men, women and children goblins surrounded the fish and started feasting. The goblin that had ordered her to fish dived in and came back out with two fish, he handed one to Catherine and started eating the other one. "Thank you but I can't eat raw fish, it'll make me sick. Glad I could help... um... if it's okay I'm going to try and find my way back to the temple now. Bye!" she called as she left the rejoicing goblins.

A long trek up a hill and Catherine found herself leaning against a huge boulder trying to find where she was and where the temple was when the boulder shifted and she fell forward. **"Hello, there, who're you?" **Catherine jumped up and turned around to see that the boulder was actually a rock monster. Thinking it rude not to answer she replied, "I'm Shadow, and you are?" The rock monster puzzled over what she had said like it didn't quite understand then said, **"I'm Garin, it's nice to meet you, Shadow. What are you doing all the way up here? I don't get many visitors." **Garin had a slow trembly way of speaking like he was a little kid that had just met a stranger and didn't know what to do. "Well, actually to be honest it was a total accident that I ended up here. I got lost while exploring the forest and now I can't find my way back to Genkai's temple. Do you know where it is?" Garin puzzled over that for a bit and then said, **"I don't know of any Ge-n-ka-i, but I do know where a temple is." **

"Great, can you point me in the right direction?"

**"Sure, but... couldn't you stay for a little bit? I don't get many visitors and it gets lonely up here." **

"Tell you what, it's getting late so I can't stay today but I promise that if you help me get back to the temple I'll try and come and visit you tomorrow. How's that sound?" Garin nodded and lifted Catherine up to see where to go, once he'd put her down she thanked him and headed off marking the way so she could find him again.

By the time she made it back to the temple it was getting dark and Yusuke and Kurama met her on the veranda saying that Katrina had just gotten back and they were about to go looking for her. "Whelp, I'm here now so I saved you the search. So what's going to happen to Katrina and me?"

Genkai came out and answered her question, "You two will be staying with me for a while to train; we'll leave it till tomorrow but expect to be up early."

"Great," Catherine mumbled as she went inside to find Katrina and tell her about her adventures. When she found her Katrina was hanging from the veranda on the side of the house swinging back and forth nearly hitting her head every time. Catherine thought it would be hilarious to sneak up on her and scare her so she quietly crept up to her and shouted, "BOO!" Katrina's eyes shot open and she squeaked and slipped off of the veranda landing heavily on her head and sliding down onto her back on the ground. Catherine fell over laughing too hard to stand and Katrina sat up and punched her very hard on the shoulder that had been bitten causing Catherine to scream in pain and punch Katrina back where she'd gotten grazed by the bullet and she clamped down on a painful screech as she shot over the veranda to chase Catherine around outside. As they rounded the corner Catherine made a sharp turn to avoid hiting Kurama; Katrina came around the corner intent on tackling Catherine and bowled over Kurama instead. "Ohaf! Oh, sorry, Kurama. Excuse me I din't see you; need help?" Katrina asked, blushing a little, as she got off of Kurama and helped him up. When everything had been sorted out Katrina looked around but didn't see Catherine anywhere, "dang it!" she muttered and pulled out a book, hopped onto the veranda, hung over the side and began reading. Yusuke and Kurama shared a glanc and said goodbye. Yusuke called inside to let Keiko know he was leaving and she came running out as he headed down to the gate. "Oh, Katrina-san, I'll have Yusuke bring your stuff tommorow. Bye."

"WAKE UP, BRATS!" Genkai called as she flicked on the lights in Katrina and Catherine's new bedrooms. Katrina reluctantly got up and headed to the bathroom but Catherine groaned and pulled the blanket over her head. Genkai walked in and threw the blanket off warning her that if she didn't get up she'd get soaked. Catherine ignored her and reached for the blanket; Genkai glared at her and dumped a bucket of freezing cold water ontop of her. Catherine jolted up screaming and shivering, she ran to the bathroom just as Katrina was walking out fully dressed and ready for the day. "*snicker* What happened to you?"

Catherine glared and Katrina and slammed the door in her smiling face.

"Catherine, now that you're awake you'll get to test your skills first. You're going to train in the forest where you'll have pleanty of shadows to work with. Katrina you stay put while I get Catherine started. Try starting a fire in your hands with your mind." Genkai said as she lead Catherine into the woods. Training lasted a long time before the girls got a break; Catherine was in the forest learing to call the shadows to her, which meant focusing her mind on the shadow and simply commanding it to obey her. While Katirna was working on calling a fire to start in her palms. By the time lunch rolled around neither one of them had accomplished much... Genkai was doing her own training occasionally checking up on the girls progress; after lunch she had the girls go strait back to work and gave them 'encouraging speeches'. Catherine's speech: "You lazy, Brat, you're a disgrace to all shadow demons! A child could have mastered this exercise in a matter of minutes! You've had half the day and you can't even call one shadow to your aid! Even the Dimwit learned faster than you. PATHETIC!" Katrina's speech was... "...You call yourself a fire demon? If Hiei were teaching you he would have killed you by now! The two of you are wasting my time if you're not willing to learn then you have no reason to be here! Get your #$ in gear or leave my temple and quit wasting my time!" That spured them on; at the end of the day both girls had managed what Genkai had taught them and a little more of their own tricks. Not only could Catherine draw shadows to her but she could also make weapons, keys, sheilds, anything she want out of the shadows. Katrina could create a fireball and shoot it and many other weapons, as well as engulf herself in flames as a sheild. Genkai wouldn't acknowledge their achievements but they knew she was at least a little proud of them.

They'd trained with Genkai for a week when Hiei finally dropped by to visit Yukina. Catherine annoyed the crap out of him the entire time. If he hadn't delt with Yusuke and Kuwabara all the time he probably would've killed her. Katrina ingnored his presence and continued training; he sneared at her a few times which only made her try harder. She knew Hiei was an amazingly strong fire demon and that if she wanted to be at least able to protect others as well as herself she'd have to be much better. Catherine had taught herself how to shadow-travel and loved poping up on Katrina while she was learing new tricks and making her jump.

Sometimes Catherine would try to drag Katrina with her through the shadows; one day, by sheer accident, she swears, once Catherine had complete confidance in her shadow-travel abilities, she grabbed Katrina by the foot and dragged her into the shadows with her. For someone who's never entered the shadow world before it was terrifing. Katrina was standing in the sun practicing a defensive move, no fire involved, then she was in pure darkness horrible images swirling past her: her parents hanging from nooses, her dog cut up as a specimen for some sicko, one of her siblings getting repeatedly stabbed in the arms, legs, and gut until their intestines were falling out. Katherine hates to scream and it's very rare, even when she's scared witless, for that to happen, but these images were so strong she couldn't help it, she let loose a blood curdiling scream a horror actress would be jealous of. Catherine didn't see what Katrina was seeing and continued on until she had had her 'fun' and released Katrina back in the sunlight at the exact spot she'd been. By then, Katrina had tears streaming down her face and she was curled up trying not to scream again; when she realized she was back in the sun she wiped away her tears, took a deep breath and started practicing again to calm herself. Catherine asked what had happened but Katrina ignored her for the rest of the day. Whenever Catherine tried to pull her into a shadow portal again she'd set herself on fire and walk off.

A couple of months of practicing later and Botan showed up with a job request/order from Koenma. Catherine was tired of the human world and Genkai griping at her all the time so she said, "H#(( yeah!" and Katrina decided it would be a great opportunity to test their new skills. Koenma knew he couldn't force Yusuke and Kuwabara to go but Yukina and Keiko didn't want their new friends going to the demon world by themselves or fighting an enemy without back up, so they went too. Catherine and Katrina had never been to Spirit World before so Yusuke knocked them out so Koenma could meet with them and tell them about their mission.

"You didn' t have to punch me!" Koenma heard outside his door as Katrina shouted at Yusuke. "Well it was the only way to get you guys here," Yusuke repliedwith a smirk.

"Not like I need another bruise on my head," Katrina mumbled.

"Yeah, you've got pleanty of those from falling head first off of the veranda at Genkai's," Catherine teased.

"Shut up, I would have those bruises if you'd quite pushing me off!"

"You need to learn to defend yourself, I'm just trying to help!"

"Yeah, help give me a concuscion!" Koenma opened the doors and glared up at everyone, "If you're quite done wasting time out here may we get on with business?"

Catherine smilled and tried to hold back a laugh; of course she'd seen Koenma before pleanty of times, but she couldn't help it finally seeing him in person and not just on a TV screen. "Laugh, and you're off the mission, Catherine," Koenma warned. He cleared his throat once the doors were shut and began to explain the misssion. "

"Hey, Kat, he still has the pacifier. I'm still wonderin' how in the world he can speak clearly with that thing in his mouth. You think if I stole it the power stored in it would kill me?" Catherine whispered.

Katrina grinned and tried to ignore Catherine as she made a move to steal the pacifier. "Once you have the slave master, um... I believe his name is Toru, you will free the slaves and leave as- CATHERINE! I WARNED YOU I WOULD KICK YOU OFF OF THE MISSION!"

"YITE!" Catherine ducked into the shadows and popped back up next to Katrina.

"Koenma-dono, I highly sugest you let her go on this mission, or else she'll continue to give you trouble. She'll be WORSE than Yusuke was," Katrina quickly jumped in to defend her friend. Koenma calmed a little at being addressed politely for once, "... Just go, Botan will take you as far as she can."

"So, we're going to barge in there like idiots and get ourselves capture and totally screw up the mission, aren't we?" Katrina said sarcastically.

"Pretty much!" Catherine and Yusuke replied with 'Idiot' stamped all over their faces and giant grins.

"Ladies first," Yusuke said gesturing to the door.

"How chivalrous of you Yusuke, what would Keiko say at your good manners," Katrina said, sarcasm still heavy in her voice as she led the way inside.

Once the doors where open everyone walked down a strait narrow hall way, "Oh, I simply MUST get the name of Toru's interior decorator I love what they've done with the place!" Catherine giggled.

"Thank you, I decorated myself, it takes real knack to capture the dullness of white but I think I managed it pretty well don't you?" a strange voice echoed through the hall. Before anyone had the chance to ask the walls in front of them disapeared and they where standing in a giant arena like area. In the center was a huge cirlcle and on the other side a huge throne floating in the air by unknown means. "Nice to see you, I assume Koenma sent you? Well how about we cut to the chase; you will fight my four guards however you choose to, if you can defeat all of them then I will surrender. If you lose, and survive," he mumbled, "you will become my slaves for the rest of your lives. Deal?"

"DEAL!" Catherine shouted.

"WHAT THE H*$% DID YOU JUST SAY?" Yusuke shouted at her, "You just made a deal so stupid even _**I**_ wouldn't agree to it without thinking it over first!"

"Well then, that's settled now on to the fights, who's up?" Toru asked excitedly.

"Kat, you're up!" Catherine volunteered her startled friend.

"How come you don't go first?"

"Cause, I want to see what you can do, you've seen my powers now I wanna see yours."

Rather than waste more time with pointless arguing Katrina heaved a sigh and headed to the center of the arena, a giant stepped into the circle from Toru's side.

"Hmmph, I would have expected a little more of a challenge than some little girl like you. I could crush you just by breathing; don't you have anyone else you could send me?" the giant patronized.

"No, you got me, take it or leave it," Katrina grumbled, if it was one thing she hated it was being called a little girl it reminded her of how weak she used to be. The giant raised his hand to crush her but she wasn't there; "Wha-" the giant didn't get to finish as his head fell to the ground with a loud THUD! Katrina landed on the ground next to it and glared.

"What? No witty comeback or catchphrase?" Yusuke called.

"Sorry, they're not my strong suit!" Katrina called back as the giant's courpse melted into the ground. The next challenger steped forward, she was taller than Katrina by almost two feet, blue as the sky and, to Katrina's disgust, was only wearing what looked like a dark blue bikini. "My turn, I want to fight you," she said, her voice sounded like a wave crashing againgst a cliff in a storm. Katrina backed up and stood up straighter, "If I wanted to fight a slutty model I didn't have to come to the demon world to find one." That made the woman twitch and an icicle shot across Katrina's cheek. "Crap," she mumbled.

"Crap is right brat I saw you use a sword of flames on that idiot, as you can see I control water. You're going to die!" and with that the slutty model proceded to create a tidal wave and ride it towards Katrina. Katrina moved as fast as she could and shot a flaming arrow at the woman but it was extingushed as another icicle hurled towards her face, she built up a sheild of fire and dived towards the woman with a sword of fire the sheild still up. "You think that will help you? You're just a pathetic weakling!" the woman shouted as Katrina thrust her sword through the woman's shoulder. It was extinguished temporarily misting up so that Katrina couldn't see. She surrounded her self in flames and shot them outward only to be greated by laughter that sounded like pebbles being washed on to the shore. Katrina felt a stabbing pain in her right side and saw blood flowing and icicle was laying in the ground in front of her. She held her side as she continued to fight, the mist had cleared and she was chasing the woman, "You'll only kill yourself faster that way you know," The woman taunted as she hurled icicles at Katrina. Katrina was losing a lot of blood but she refused to give up, she had to at least get a hit.

"Katrina! Switch with me! Let me fight her!" Catherine called, she only used Katrina's real name when she was upset with her or scared for her.

"No!" Katrina shouted back the woman punched her in the jaw, there was a small cracking sound and an immense pain shot through Katrina's head she collapsed and spit out blood.

"You should listen to your friend, you're so pathetic you can't even handle an opponent of the opposite element."

Katrina staggered back up dizzy and barely able to focus, "I'm no quiter!" she shouted but it came out more like, "I'm o uitster!" and she punched the woman so hard not only did her jaw break but so did Katrina's hand. Katrina grimaced but took advantage of her startled opponent and sliced her flaming sword across her gut opening a shallow wound. The woman glared at her and tripped her, before she knew it the woman was on top of her shooting water down her throat. Katrina paniced and tried to set herself on fire but didn't have enough oxygen in her system, she started to black out when the weight and water were suddenly gone. "I TOLD you to switch out with me!" Catherine shouted, "Yusuke, Kuwabara, get her out of her NOW!" Katrina smiled at her friend and slowly accepted the sweet darkness that took away the pain.

Catherine switched into the fight for Katrina before she got herself killed, this b*$#% REALLY pissed her off. Now she would get an -$ whopping that she'd never forget... if she lived. The woman got up and shot icicles at Catherine, Catherine slid into the shadows and popped up behind the woman. "Kat was right if we wanted to fight a slutty model we didn't have to come here to do it; of course she'd never say this but you're not just a slut you're a b%&$* as well. She doesn't cuss so I'll do it for her, and you know what? Your going to die today. The woman spun around and sliced at Catherine with an ice sword but Catherine already had the woman's wrist caught in a shadow. "Ah, ah, ah..." there was a loud CRACK! and the woman's wrist went limp. "AAAARGGH! YOU BROKE IT!" she screamed. Catherine smirked and grabbed the woman's other wrist and her ankles. "Now, which should I break next? Or should I just go ahead and kill you?" The woman glared at Catherine and shot an icicle at her; Catherine pulled them both into the shadows and the woman began screaming. In the shadow realm, for those not protected by a shadow demon, it's a nightmare realm, Catherine had no idea what the woman was seeing but she enjoyed her pain. _Good, you nearly killed my best friend and enjoyed every second of it. Now experience your worst nightmares as I break all of your bones!_ A couple of minutes later Catherine dropped the woman's limp, broken, body on the ground and rushed over to her friends. "How is she?" she asked nervously. Yusuke and Kuwabara looked up suprised to see her back so soon. Katrina was laying on the ground still out and bleeding, Yusuke was pumping her chest trying to get her to puke up the water.

"MEDIC!" Toru called sarcastically.  
Catherine shot up and ran towards Toru ready to suck HIM into the shadow realm but was stopped by a blast of air. "You have to finish your fights before you can get to the Master," a gentle voice said in her ear. Catherine spun around but no one was there, "Up here dear," the voice said. Looking up Catherine saw a young man probably in his mid- tweenties floating in the air. Catherine created a set of four spider-like legs with her shadow and stretched up to where the strange man was. "Lets get this over with so I can get my friend the medical attention she needs."

The man didn't hesitate, a blast of wind shot Catherine accross the arena and into the wall, so hard in fact that she got stuck. She slipped into a shadow portal and used the man's shadow to grab his legs, she was about to break his ankle's when he got free and sliced her hands with wind. Catherine ignored the stinging and attacked again and again he got free. The man would soar up into the air and send blades of air at Catherine, she in turn opend her shadows and released his attacks behind him. But it didn't work they way she'd hoped, the man's attacks didn't affect him at all and he continued to slice her to pieces with his wind blades. Catherine got fed up with being beat, so she slipped into the shadow in the hope he would follow her. That backfired on her as well, the man wasn't that stupid he simply used the open portal to send his attacks after her. She knew she was losing and if she didn't finish him off quickly Katrina might die. _How does he know how to break free of my shadows?_ she thought. _I can't fight him with my shadows becuase he knows how to break free of them, I can't attack him in hand to hand combat because he's in the air and can just blow me away. So how can I defeat him? _Catherine had closed her portal to think and came up with the best idea she could, if she could distract him, maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to form a portal around him and finish him before he could escape. It was her only chance and she still had one more opponent to go.

Catherine darted out of the shadow realm and started attacking again, this time dodging the wind attacks as well. Once the man was completely focused on her she put her plan into motion, for a second nothing happened and she was afraid it wouldn't work, then the man started screaming and she quickly broke his neck. Catherine dropped him on the ground and Toru's throne fell to the ground as the man's power disapeared. Her next opponent slowly walked into the circle; they were dressed in a balck cloak, the person, or demon, was very short. The cloak fell to the ground and Catherine's jaw followed, her next opponent was a little girl completely decked out in... PINK! The little girl giggled and said, "Hi, my name's Kita, I'm going to kill you now," and with that the little girl went from overly cute to demonic; her outfit and face where the same but she pulled out a giant double headed battle axe and grinned as she swung it at Catherine's head...


	5. Chapter 5

Paper Voice

A YYH fanfic

Chapter Five

Catherine dodged the blade but just barely, "Aw, I missed," the girl whined. Catherine shot a shadow knife at the girl but it stopped and turned around heading for Catherine. "You think you're better than me? You've barely had any training at all! Newbie's like you piss me off! Always assuming your better than your elders. Well guess what, I'm over three hundred and forty years old, I've had years to master my powers and create new ones. While you, you're so young and new you probably don't even know the history of shadow demons." The girl said as she continued to attack Catherine.

"You- You're a- shadow- demon?" Catherine gasped between dodging swings of the axe.

"Duh! How else do you think, little Demetri learned how to fend off shadow attacks. Though he didn't do a very good job in the end, sad I thought I'd taught him better than that. Oh well, maybe I can take you on as my new apprentice. That is... if I don't kill you first!"

"Catherine!" a voice shouted behind her, she turned and saw that Katrina was sitting up. It was a mistake, Kita took a swing at her and sliced a deep gash down her left arm. Catherine knew she had no shot at beating this demon and neither did the rest of them, when she looked at Katrina she saw that her best friend was even more pale than normal and was barely sitting up. She had to do something to end this quickly or else Katrina might not live to see tomorrow. _Well, if only one of us is going to make it out of here it might as well be her. She's got a lot to live for and I can't let her die because I was too weak to do anything. Forgive me Genkai; you can kick my butt when you get to the other side. _Catherine remembered what Genkai had told her as she started to move...

"_Catherine, the move I'm about to teach you can only be performed by a shadow demon but it's forbidden to use it-"_

_"Why is it forbidden?"_

_"If you would shut up and listen I was about to tell you! It's forbidden because it's a deadly move; both the user and the opponent die from this attack. I never want you to use it, if you do I'll have Koenma bring you back so I can torture and kill you myself! Do you understand?"_

_"Huh, oh, yea, never use this attack it's deadly. Has anyone ever survived it?"  
"No, that's why I don't want you to use this attack unless it's your very last resort, and I mean VERY LAST!" _

"What do you think you're—NO! YOU CAN'T KNOW THAT MOVE! IT'S FORBIDDEN! IF YOU COMPLETE THAT YOU'LL KILL US BOTH!" Kita screeched. Catherine ignored her and finished the circle made from her blood and grabbed Kita with her blood soaked left hand. A strange purple light wrapped around them both and Kita screamed at the top of her lungs. Catherine smiled and looked at Katrina, "Whelp, I guess I'm dying young, see you eventually, Kat, try not to make it too soon or I'll send you back. And tell Kurama what you think of him. Who knows what'll happen?"

"Catherine, what are you doing?" Katrina screamed, which was a bad idea her jaw was swollen and her side started to bleed again. There was a bright purple light and an explosion, followed by demon remains and blood raining down on the arena. Katrina wanted to scream but she couldn't she could barely cry without hurting herself even more because crying turned into sobbing. Yusuke and Kuwabara ran to the circle in the center of the arena but there was no trace of Catherine. Toru got up and tried to sneak off but Yusuke shot him and Kuwabara ran over and grabbed him. Katrina tried to pull herself together enough to respect the sacrifice Catherine had made.

"Were... you crying over me?"

"CAT? Umggh!" Katrina shouted then gently held her jaw as she looked around for her friend.

"I don't die that easily, you need to be more careful next time, okay. I nearly killed myself to save you and it would have been a waste if you died sobbing over me." Catherine slowly materialized in front of Katrina in a sitting position. "You look terrible, Kat, you should get Kurama to heal you and then ask him out." Katrina blushed as she glared and then collapsed/hugged her not dead best friend.

Once Katrina had passed out knowing that Catherine was safe, Catherine had Yusuke call Koenma to request- demand- immediate medical attention. Katrina was in the infirmary in Spirit World and Catherine was examined and told to stay put but of course she didn't listen. As soon as the coast was clear she found Koenma and asked where Kurama was. She wanted to torture him out of boredom and see if she could find out what he thought about Katrina since she was never gonna try herself. Koenma was too busy for her to see him so she settled for Botan. "Hey, Grimmy-chan, can you take me to Kurama? I'm BORED!"

"You're supposed to be resting..." Botan glanced around to check that the coast was clear before finishing, "but I wouldn't mind getting out of here for a bit myself, let's go." Catherine grinned and sat on the end of Botan's oar, hanging on tight as they flew off.

Botan found Kurama reading in the park and landed behind some nearby bushes. Catherine hopped off, "Thanks, Grimmy-chan," she said before popping out of the bushes screaming, "BOO!" to the back of Kurama's head. He jumped a little and turned around to see Catherine laughing on the ground. "Was my reaction really that funny to you, Catherine-san?"

"Not really, I just haven't had a good laugh in a while and couldn't help myself," she replied as she got up and walked around to sit next to Kurama. "What 'cha readin'?"

"Oh, just something Katrina-san suggested to me."

"Can I see it?" Kurama handed the book to Catherine and she grinned starting to chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Kurama asked.

"What do you think of the book so far?" Catherine answered with a question.

"I think it's very good, well written and it has a twisting plot that makes it hard to put down. In fact I nearly got in trouble at work the other day because I was reading it."

"Kat will be delighted to hear that when she wakes up! Because... did she tell you she and I are writers?"

"No," Kurama looked shocked and happy.

"Guess she didn't want to brag after only just meeting you. Well her pen name's Sophia West..." Catherine slightly tilted the book towards Kurama so that he could see the author's name.

"You mean she...?"

"YEP! The book you've been so absorbed in was written by Kat!"

"Wow, I know two authors personally and their my friends as well. How come you never told us you guys were writers?"  
"Mm, it just never came up I guess," Catherine shrugged. Catherine handed Kurama back his book and continued talking about Katrina and herself and asking Kurama questions about himself as well. Eventually she asked him what he thought of Katrina and herself, "I want an honest response, even if it's painful," she demanded.

"I think the two of you are delightful young women and great friends."

Catherine frowned, that wasn't the response she was looking for, "No, I mean individually, what you think of us?"

"You are a lot like Yusuke, but you're kinder than he is most of the time," he replied with a smile, "Katrina is very nice, you two seem to be like yin and yang to each other almost complete opposites yet you balance each other out and have a little of each other in you. Is that what you meant?"

"Grah! No, I mean..." Catherine lowered her voice, leaned in close and whispered, "Do you _Like_ Kat, like _really Like _her?"

"Wha-"

"HEY! Kurama, Crazy!" a voice shouted, Catherine growled and turned to see Kuwabara, Yusuke and Keiko coming towards them. Once they were within normal speaking range Keiko said, "Catherine-chan, I thought you were supposed to be in the infirmary with Katrina-chan? How is she by the way?"

"Hey, Keiko, Kat's resting right now, they said she needs a ton of rest for a week or two but then her body should be healed enough to handle basic stuff, and the stitches will be gone, too. And me? I'm fine, I heal faster than she does. Did the Baka duo tell you what happened?" Yusuke sniffed at the remark directed at him and Keiko said that they had only told her that she and Katrina had been seriously injured so Catherine told them that if they treated her to all the ice cream she could eat she'd tell the story of the girls' near death adventure. Keiko sighed but told Catherine to keep from eating too much ice cream and she'd treat her. Catherine jumped up and squealed then ran towards the entrance of the park.

After three bowls of ice cream Catherine was barely through the story, taking time to savor her ice cream. Keiko and Kurama hadn't heard the story and Kurama was secretly annoyed that Catherine didn't mention what had happened to them while she was questioning him at the park. Like she had said she healed quicker so it wasn't really noticeable that she had been seriously injured so he didn't think to ask. Yusuke and Kuwabara stayed and bought ice cream for themselves because they wanted to hear what had happened from Catherine's point of view, and Keiko wanted their stories next. She refused to forgive them for letting Catherine and Katrina get hurt so badly. Once Catherine's side of the story had been told Kuwabara explained what had happened from his view, he explained that Genkai had told him and Yusuke to stay out of any fights unless Catherine and Katrina couldn't handle them because they needed the practice and to deal with serious battles without help sometime. And by the time Katrina had gotten seriously injured Catherine had already jumped in and they had to make sure Katrina didn't die.

"Excuses. Excuses, what would you have done if Catherine wasn't able to jump in soon enough and Katrina died?" She was fuming but kept her voice down so that bystanders wouldn't try and eavesdrop. "Genkai told us not to interfere no matter what," Yusuke corrected, "and we wouldn't have let it go that far, were not stupid, Keiko!" Yusuke finished almost shouting.

Keiko stood up shoving her chair back as she did and stormed down the street- they'd been eating outside- and Yusuke headed off in the opposite direction. Catherine continued to enjoy her ice cream ignoring the couple's typical fight, Kurama sighed and said he was going to visit Katrina to see how she was doing and Kuwabara just sat across the table from Catherine watching her eat.

"What?" she asked. Kuwabara just shook his head and got up to leave as well. Catherine finished her ice cream and ran to catch up with Kuwabara but was stopped by Botan.

"Time to go back, Catherine-chan, you need to rest at least a little." Catherine started following Botan then ducked into a crowd and disappeared, she wanted to give Katrina some time alone with Kurama if she was awake.

Katrina woke up after a nice long nap and saw that Catherine had left a note for her: _Kat, gone out to pester Kurama out of boredom, and who knows, maybe find out what he thinks of you... If you wake up before I get back, umm, I don't know, don't hog all the fun! Or the ICE CREAM! I WANT ICE CREAM!_

_Love Cat... (=^^=) =3 _

Katrina sighed and burned the note, then grabbed a book from the bedside table and started reading. When she was almost done with the book there was a knock on the door to the room she and Catherine were staying in. She put the book back on the table and rubbed her blurry eyes as someone hesitantly came in, it was Kurama. "Oh, hi, Kurama."

"Hello, Katrina-san, how are you feeling? Catherine-san told me what happened, I came by to visit and see if I could help."

"I'm feeling about as good as I can after what happened, if there's anything you can do to help that would be great, the sooner I get out of here the better. I've almost finished the book I'm reading and there doesn't appear to be anything else for me to do around here. So what's up with you?"

Kurama was carefully checking Katrina's wounds and healing the ones he could, "I finished the book you suggested to me."

"What'd you think?"

"It was good, I really enjoyed it, so much so in fact that I nearly got in trouble at work for reading rather than doing my job," Kurama chuckled and Katrina grinned then grimaced as Kurama gently pushed on her ribs near the stitches. "Sorry, oh, and Catherine-san told me the book you suggested was one you had written, have you published any other books?"

"Yea, plenty, ow... But I've got to write a lot more before I'll be as good as the authors I love. Like Mira Grant, are you into zombie stories?"

"Not particularly, no, you?"

"Guilty as charged, I used to Hate zombies, they were one of the few monsters I was, and still am, scared of and I hated zombie flicks but Catherine loved 'em and made me watch them with her. I wasn't usually scared of the movies I just thought most of them were boring because it was just the same thing over and over again. But then around Halloween the library had a bunch of zombie novels set out and I picked up like five of 'em cause they sounded interesting. That's how I got hooked, Mira Grant's _Feed, _David Wellington's _Monster Nation, _and... I can't remember the author's name but I LOVED _World War Z _as well. I can give you a list a mile long of awesome books to read, horror, fantasy and sci-fi-fantasy as well. My stuff's okay but it's not nearly as good as the pros."

Their conversation focused mainly on books and authors the entire time that Kurama was there; occasionally it would shift to movies or people but always led back to books in the end. Catherine eventually came back and sneaked in to keep from bothering them, she could see that they were having a good time and Katrina looked a whole lot better than when Catherine had left. Catherine slipped past Kurama at one point to steal Katrina's book and swap it with another one and went back to her bed to read until she fell asleep.

A couple of weeks later Catherine's wounds had almost completely healed and Katrina was still supposed to be taking things easy. She didn't of course, she couldn't sit still long enough and Catherine kept dragging her around to explore new things: random closets that were more like giant rooms, the kitchen (she was looking for ice cream), and the gazillion and one other strange things to explore where ever they were kept to try and keep them out of trouble. When they were finally released they thought they were going back to Genkai's but Kuwabara met them saying that they were supposed to stay with him and his sister Shizuru. He didn't have an explanation as to why they were but they didn't care, this meant not having to get up super early and train, at least for a while. Katrina and Catherine were so happy to finally be getting out and back into society that they begged to go to the nearest park with a merry-go-round or at least some good swings.

Kuwabara didn't want to go to the park but the girls swore they'd annoy the life out of him until he did so he gave in. As soon as they were at the park Katrina looked for a merry-go-round to her surprise and joy she found one and called for Catherine. "CAT! THEY HAVE ONE! THEY HAVE A MERRY-GO-ROUND! Come spin it pleeeeeeaaaassse!" Katrina begged. Catherine ran after her to the merry-go-round and they spun until they were to dizzy and sick to spin anymore. When they finally got off Yusuke, Keiko and Botan were there too. "HAHAHAHAH! You two look as drunk as Chu getting off that thing!" He laughed. Catherine and Katrina didn't want to explain how they knew who Chu was so they asked in unison, "Who?"

"A friend of ours, he's a... you know... you guys gotta meet him and Jin and Rinku and the rest sometime," Kuwabara replied.

"Sounds cool to me," Catherine said, "you should try and get a hold of them for us." Once the dizzy and sickness had worn off Katrina ran to the empty swings and jumped on preparing to swing as high as she could. "Come join me, Cat!" she called down.

"I think I'll pass, you know me and heights don't really get along," Catherine replied heading to an empty bench.

Everyone split up and headed home when it started getting dark and Katrina was disappointed because she liked playing at the park when it was dark, it was creepy and beautiful at the same time she explained. Catherine and Kuwabara were ready to go home though and Kuwabara said it wouldn't be the best idea for them to be out too late. They still had a bit of a walk ahead of them before they reached Kawabata's place. By the time they got there exhaustion had hit Catherine and Katrina hard enough that as soon as their beds were set up they konked out.

Katrina was woken at an odd hour to the sound of a muffled phone ringing; she tried to ignore it but it kept ringing and ringing and demanded answering. Sighing she dug through Catherine's bag, Kuwabara had picked up their bags for them while they were gone, and found the phone. She glared at it with blurry, tired eyes then answered it... "Hello?"

"Hello? Catherine?"

"No, this is Katrina, what do you want, Gensu?"

"Catherine that's who, that's why I-" *CLICK* Katrina didn't want to deal with Gensu yelling at her at 4AM so she just hung up and put the phone back in Catherine's bag. It went off again and again repeatedly before Katrina fell back asleep ignoring it and about ready to answer again and threaten Gensu.

In the morning Katrina woke up at a reasonable ten o'clock and took her things with her to the bathroom to take a shower. When she was done and heading back to the room she heard Catherine on the phone. "Yes?... Hi, Gensu, I noticed you called six times last night. Why?... Y'know a hot guy like you should have a girlfriend and not be pestering eighteen year olds in the middle of the night... Would I be interested in what...? Mmm, H*** no... Katrina? I highly doubt it. So, why did you call so many times any way?" Catherine was silent for a while then she nearly dropped the phone. "WHAT? You've gotta be kidding me?... OF COURSE WE WILL!... IMMEDIATELY! Goodbye..." Catherine hung up the phone as Katrina walked in.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

"Kat, we need to leave...Now. We can't let anyone know where we're going. I don't even know where we're going to go. I just know we need to leave. I'll explain later," Catherine said; she was already dressed and her things were always packed so Katrina picked up the backpack she'd just set down and they checked to make sure the coast was clear. Kuwabara was out visiting Yukina and wouldn't be back for a while and who knew where Shizuru was so they left without a word.


	6. Chapter 6

Paper Voice

A YYH fanfic

Chapter Six

When Catherine was sure it was safe to talk she said, "Gensu was calling to let us know that we apparently have assassins after us..." she paused to let it sink in. "To keep everyone safe he thinks it would be best for us to keep on the move, while still doing our job of course."

"Why does it always get stormy just when life's going so well?" Katrina sighed.

"Gensu said that there are actually other um... businesses out there and they either want us to report to them or cease to exist. Don't ask me why even Gensu doesn't understand it. We just can't gain connections with anyone or else we risk getting them killed. Thankfully whoever's after us doesn't know that we're close to anyone but each other yet. So I say we keep it that way." Katrina nodded and the girls headed for the train station to get as far away as they could; which turned out to be just the next town over since Gensu had neglected to send enough money at the time.

They did happen to have enough money for a hotel and food though, so they booked a room and tried to stay calm. "I'm bored, if it's okay with you I'm gonna take a walk," Katrina said.

"Fine, just don't forget your cell," Catherine replied as she flopped on one of the beds and grabbed the TV remote. Katrina checked to make sure her cell was on and fully charged then left. Catherine turned on the TV and flipped through the stations but couldn't find anything to watch so she curled up and took a nap.

Katrina wandered around aimlessly for a bit before she found an ice cream shop and stopped for a cone, and quickly headed back out while enjoying it. Shortly after she'd finished eating the cone, Katrina found a park and ran straight for a swing. Glancing at the kids playing on the equipment she saw a little girl standing near an open edge and a little boy, probably around ten, standing next to her. The little girl didn't seem to notice him but he had a blank look on his face as he shoved the girl over the edge. Katrina jumped off of the swing and ran to catch the girl. She hit the ground with the girl in her arms, "Hey you stu-" she shouted as she stood up with the girl but the little boy was gone. The girl was about to cry so Katrina gently set her down and the girl ran off to a young man, probably her older brother, who scooped her up and headed towards Katrina. "Thank you for catching Karin like that, are you okay? Do you know what happened?" the young man asked.

"Um... your welcome, actually I thought I saw some boy push her over the edge, I just kind of reacted instinctively."

"Some instincts, well thank you again, bye," the young man said as he walked off. Katrina sighed and decided it would be a good idea to head back to the hotel, maybe pick up some ice cream for Catherine while she was at it.

Back at the hotel Katrina slid the card key and went inside her room; she didn't see Catherine on the bed or anywhere in the room. She checked her cell but there weren't any missed calls and the bathroom door was closed so she figure Catherine was in there. "I'm back!" she called... getting no reply she walked over to the bathroom door and knocked, "Catherine? I'm back are you in there?" Once again there was no reply so she warned that she was coming in and opened the door. The bathroom was empty as well but there was something wrong... very wrong. The floor was covered in blood and the mirror was broken, Katrina screamed and ran into it; she slipped on the floor and cracked her head on the tub. The mirror shards still in their frame clouded over and a pair of red animalistic eyes appeared in them. "Hello, Katrina," a rumbling, bubbling voice echoed around the room and the bathroom door slammed shut. Katrina tried to get up but then an image of Catherine appeared in the shards; her screams pierced through Katrina's skull as Catherine lay bleeding severely, her arm was almost severed and one of her shins was broken to the point that the bone was sticking out. There was a gash across her head and her hair was being ripped out as some invisible creature attacked her. If you want to save your friend you need to come, alone, to this destination; a map appeared in the shards then actually fell out of it and floated to the blood covered floor. The creature began laughing and the then the room started to change, the blood was gone and the mirror was fine, the only thing left was the map. Katrina got up and shakily picked up the map it showed her a place in a forest right outside the town she and Catherine had just left. "Don't worry Catherine, I'm coming for you," she whispered then she left the hotel intent on saving Catherine not thinking clearly as she usually did.

After Katrina left Catherine turned on the TV and flipped through the stations but couldn't find anything to watch so she curled up and took a nap. Not more than ten minutes later Catherine was awake again and decided to go take a bath since she hadn't had one recently and her hair was nasty. Besides she needed to relax after all that had just happened. Before she could even get the water running the bathroom got cold and the mirror clouded over, Katrina's terrified face appeared in the mirror and she began to scream. Catherine stared at the mirror puzzled as something grabbed Katrina's red hair and yanked her backward and cutting into her scalp. "I believe this little vixen's your friend? If you wish to ever see her again you have to come to this location alone immediately," A rumbling voice shouted from the mirror as a map formed and floated down onto the sink; then the bathroom warmed back up and the only face in the mirror was Catherine's. She scooped up the map and studied the location then headed out to save her best friend.

Katrina entered the forest and quickly found the clearing indicated on the map; she saw Catherine unconscious in a steel cage but no one else around. "Catherine!" she shouted as she ran over to the cage, "Ah, ah, ah..." the creepy voice from the mirror said. A horrible scent hit Katrina and she turned to see a man sized blackish green blob thing seeping out of the tree line. "Hello, Katrina, my name is Dr. Raizuka; it's nice to see that you followed my instructions. As you can see I have not hurt your friend... yet, in fact I don't want either of you harmed because you two are going to be experiments and I need you both in the best condition you can be. Now I understand you two have only just recently gotten back to full heath but now is the best time for what I'm about to do and you are separated from your friends. They have no idea where you are so they can't help you and screw up my plans. "Dr. Raizuka... approached the cage Catherine was in as she slowly sat up groaning and rubbing her head."Uhhoh, what happened? Katrina! You're safe, why am I in a cage?" Dr. Raizuka's 'arm' squelched through the bars and grabbed Catherine by the throat as the other one was rammed down it. Catherine tried to scream but only managed to choke on the bile being pumped into her. Katrina screamed at Dr. Raizuka and prepared to attack him when the boy from the park rammed her to the ground and pinned her there. "Thank you, Daiku," Dr. Raizuka said as he pulled his arms away from Catherine, she collapsed and continued choking and began puking up the sludge. "Now, now, it's too late for that, My Dear, I have already gained control over you and soon you will DIE! HAHAHA!"

"NOOO!" Katrina screamed struggling to free herself from Daiku's grasp. Catherine's breathing slowed and Katrina *heard her heart flutter then stop all together as she collapsed into the bile she'd just puked up. "NOO! Catherine! Cat, get up! You can't die!" Katrina screamed.

Dr. Raizuka chuckled and Daiku's grip tightened on Katrina's wrists, she went limp and he loosened his grip, when he did Katrina smashed the back of her head into Daiku's nose and he let go. She jumped up and ran towards Catherine's cage but was caught off guard as the cage swung open and Catherine slowly got up. Katrina stopped and watched as her friend exited the cage and slowly lifted her head, her hair fell out of her face and Katrina saw the same blank stare in Catherine's eyes that were in Daiku's eyes. She listened carefully but couldn't hear a heart beat from anyone but herself. "How- how are you doing that?" she stuttered.

"I fed your friend some of me and killed her, now she's nothing but an empty shell under my control and you're next. Catherine, grab her!" Dr. Raizuka shouted. Catherine lunged at Katrina and Katrina shouted, "Cat, snap out of it! It's me Katrina, your best friend!"

But Catherine was beyond listening now, her soul was gone and her body was nothing more than a necromancer's puppet. Catherine tried to grab Katrina who jumped but hit the ground tripped by a shadow digging into her ankle. "Catherine let me go!" she tried to pull free but it didn't work so she shot a spark at the shadow and it disappeared. Katrina quickly got back to her feet and ran into the tree line. A shadowy tendril snaked out and gripped her around the throat choking her. "NO! DON'T KILL HER YOU FOOL!" Dr. Raizuka shouted. The shadow dropped Katrina then grabbed her around the waist and threw her into a tree; Katrina screamed in pain as her wound from the last battle reopened and began to bleed. Catherine appeared in front of her and this time Katrina shot a small blast of fire at Catherine's hair. She screamed an impossibly high pitched scream that made Katrina's ears bleed and threw her into another tree. Katrina choked back a scream and ran again covering her ears trying to escape the horrid sound that dug into her brain with razor sharp talons. Catherine materialized in front of Katrina her hair still smoking and she smiled an emotionless toothy smile, her teeth weren't that sharp before, and said in her childish voice, "Kat, why won't you join me, it's so much fun being a puppet. You'll love it, join me and I won't have to hurt you anymore. You'll only feel a little pain." then she punched Katrina in the face and jumped on her repeatedly slamming her head into the ground. Katrina could feel herself blacking out; she surrounded her fist in fire and punched Catherine in the face as hard as she could. Catherine collapsed on the ground next to her and let out another brain tearing scream. Katrina's hands shot to her ears again and she ran.

Katrina kept running until she couldn't hear the screams anymore, her lungs cried out for air and her side continued to bleed, she moved her hand to her side but refused to stop running. When she finally reached civilization she realized she'd run to Kurama's house, she jumped into a tree next to his window and began banging on it with her fist until Hiei's surprised face appeared and he opened the window for her. She fell into Kurama's room and lay on the floor crying, gasping and bleeding; Hiei's face returned to a blank stare and Kurama walked in. He dropped the tray he was holding and ran over to Katrina, he looked like he wanted to ask what had happened but instead he gently pulled Katrina's shirt up just enough to get a look at her wound. After he stopped the bleeding he cleaned and bandaged it and helped Katrina sit up. "Hiei, please get her some ice for her eye and a glass of water," he said without turning. "You're going to be okay now. Do you think you can tell me what happened?" Katrina slowly nodded and explained everything from Gensu's calls to Catherine dying and coming back as a puppet and attacking her. Kurama sat in front of her quietly listening, Hiei came back at some point and handed over the ice and glass of water to Katrina. She took it gratefully and held the ice to her eye wincing a little at the cold and sipping from the glass periodically.

When she'd relayed the entire story Kurama helped her lay down in his bed, she protested that they had to go save Catherine and he told her to just rest and they would work something in the morning. Katrina then started to protest about making a mess and needing to clean it up and he told her he'd take care of it and that what she needed to do was sleep. Her mind didn't want to but her body gratefully accepted the offer and she drifted off into nightmares.

Catherine woke up in a strange land, the sky was stained orangish-red and the trees weren't trees at all they were made of bone and skin, _It's like a Demonata universe from Darren Shan's books_, she thought as she got up. "Hello?" she shouted; when she got no reply not even her echo she started wandering around. There weren't any living creatures, that she could see, here, wherever _here _was so she wasn't worried about having to defend herself. She wandered around for what felt like hours seeing nothing but blue dirt-like ground, an orangish-red sky and those creepy Shan trees, as she had christened them, then she heard crying from somewhere nearby. Catherine followed the sound up a hill where she saw a little boy curled up crying; she wasn't sure if he was some monster or just a normal kid, all though she had no idea what a normal kid would be doing in a place like this, she carefully approached him prepared to attack if necessary. She bumped a rock and it rolled down the hill alerting the boy to her presence because he stopped crying and jumped up glaring at her. "Who're you, a monster?" he asked immediately switching from scared to defensive.

"No, my name's Catherine, Cat to my friends. Who're you and where are we?" Catherine inquired.

"My name's Daiku, we're trapped in my crazy stepfather's 'soul' in a sense."

"Daiku, nice name. How did we get here?"

"Uh, thanks. About... five years ago, my mom got remarried, I was ten then. The guy she married, Dr. Raizuka, started out really nice, for her anyway. I hated the guy from the minute I met him, I knew he meant trouble for us. He claimed the basement as his office and always kept it locked and wouldn't let anyone down there. One day my mom was being too nosy and got a second key for the basement and went down there; I was at school at the time. The principal came into my room to get me, he took me into the hall and said that there was a family emergency and I needed to go home right away. I only lived a couple of blocks from school so I ran home scared that the Doctor had done something to my mom. When I got home there was an ambulance outside, inside the basement door was wide open and my mom's body was being wheeled out on a stretcher covered by a sheet. One of the medics saw me and she came over an knelt in front of me, 'I'm sorry, kid, your mother's... dead. We don't know what happened but your father called saying that he'd come home and found her in the basement. When we got here it looked like she'd been dead for a couple of hours. I'm really sorry.' I pulled away from her and ran to my room.

She couldn't be dead, but I knew she was, and I knew who killed her too. My stepdad was doing weird experiments down there in the basement I knew he was. My mom hadn't known it but I'd seen the Doctor taking people down to the basement before, homeless people without families from the looks of 'em. They went down there but they never came back out. My mom went down there and whatever she saw must have scared her to death or something. I didn't get to tell anyone what I thought because as soon as the medics were gone and it was safe my stepdad came up to my room and asked me to come down to the basement with him. I refused, I told him I knew he was the one that had caused my mom to die and that he was trying to kill me next. He grabbed my arm and dragged me out of my room, I tried to fight back but he was twice my size and way stronger. We fought for a little bit then he hit me in the head and I blacked out.

When I came to I was here, the only way I know so much about this place is because sometimes he comes to visit me. He's not himself anymore, here he appears to be normal but I can tell he did something to himself. Sometimes he slips up and he looks like this weird pile of living sludge, but only for a few seconds. He likes to torture me by telling me things about the outside world and how long I've been here. He says I was his first successful experiment too, and now that you're here I guess he managed another success." The entire time that Daiku was talking he was leading Catherine somewhere and when he'd finished his story they'd arrived at a cave that looked like a mouth leading into a throat.

"We're not going in there are we?" Catherine asked.

Daiku nodded, "We have to, it's the only safe place in this world. Unless you'd rather take your chances with the beasts that come out at night?"

"Uh, I think we should go in then," Catherine said gesturing for Daiku to lead the way. He headed into the tunnel but didn't stop near the entrance. "Why are we going in so deep?"

"Because the entrance is too open, we don't want those creatures to know where we are," Daiku replied like he was talking to an idiot and he was pointing out the obvious.

"Just asking, sheesh kid no reason to get so annoyed, newcomer remember?"

Once they were in so deep that Catherine couldn't see her hand in front of her face Daiku stopped and Catherine ran into him. "Ooops, sorry, didn't know you'd stopped," she said.

"We can sleep here," Daiku said, "Then tomorrow I'll show you the Doc's castle where the only way out of here is located. He'll probably be expecting us, that's where he always meets me when he wants to talk. This may be his world but even he's scared of the creatures in it." After that it was silent and Catherine heard the steady breathing of Daiku sleeping and she followed his lead.

Author's Note: *Katrina is a fox demon so her hearing's obviously really good and the screaming the Catherine was letting lose was extremely painful for her because of her exceptional hearing. If she were human it would only be loud and annoying.


	7. Chapter 7

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Seven

When Katrina woke up in the morning her body was sore and tired from tossing and turning all night. Her knuckles were red like she'd punched the wall as well. She dragged herself out of bed and went to the bathroom to take a shower, for a minute she was disoriented because she'd forgotten she was at Kurama's. His house was huge and she ended up wandering around a bit before she found the bathroom and decided to skip the shower. She did brush her teeth with her fingers and try and rinse her mouth out a little though. After some more wandering she found her way downstairs and into the kitchen, she heard voices in the living room and recognized Yusuke's obnoxious attitude. Katrina figured Kurama had called him so that they could come up with a plan for rescuing Cahterine so she walked in and saw all the guys sitting around talking. Kurama had a black eye, Katrina looked down at her knuckles and giggled, _I must of hit him in my sleep_, she thought.

"Ah, good, you're awake," Kurama said.

"Hey, thought you'd never get up, you want to save your sister don't you?" Yusuke teased.

"Katrina-chan, are you okay?" Kuwabara asked.

Hiei just continued staring out the window as if it were any other normal day.

"Good moring to you too, Yusuke, and yeah, Kuwabara, I'm okay. So what's the plan for getting Cat back? If you guys don't come up with one in the next three seconds I'm going to go after her myself," Katrina replied.

"We were just discussing that, Katrina-san, why don't you sit down? We believe it would be best if you stay here, you're still recovering from your last mission and your fight last night. Do you really think it would be wise of you to go out there in your current state?" Kurama asked.

"She's my best friend and I'm NOT going to sit around 'recovering' while you guys go out and have all the fun of rescuing her. Besides I really want to kill the monster that turned her into a puppet, she's stuck her neck out for me plenty of times now I want to repay the favor and you can't stop me," Katrina finished in a dignified way restraining her temper then she headed out the front door. The guys were right behind her, Kurama looked like he wanted to object but she had the same look Yusuke got when he fought with Chu in the Dark Tournament, pure excitement and joy. She wasn't gonna be the D.I.D* in this story, not this time. Of course Catherine probably wouldn't like being the D.I.D either but it was her turn.

Catherine woke up in a creepy dark cave with a little ten year old bodied fifteen year old next to her; of course she couldn't see because it was pitch black that far into the cave. Daiku stirred and sat up, "ready to head to the Doc's castle?" he asked; Catherine nodded then remembered he couldn't see that and said yep. Daiku took her hand and led her to the front of the cave cautiously, "We have to be careful, even in the day time the monsters in this place are still hanging around sometimes," he whispered.

Daiku and Catherine started sharing stories about their lives after they'd left the cave, it was gonna be a long walk to the castle and there was nothing else to do. Catherine told him about how she and her friend came from another dimension and that they ended up hanging out with the ex-spirit detective Yusuke and his friends and the girls' last mission. He was really interested in her stories and enjoyed hearing about the outside world he was hoping that maybe, Catherine or her friends would be able to kill the Doc and get himself and Catherine out of the screwed up place they were stuck in. She asked him more questions about his life and he answered all of them the best he could. Catherine knew that he was really a fifteen year old but she just couldn't help seeing him as a cute little ten year old. Every once in a while she'd slip and treat him like a little kid and it aggravated him to no end.

Eventually they reached Dr. Raizuka's castle: it was as creepy and Shan like as the rest of this screwed up place, Catherine thought. It was made of the same material as the trees, bones and skin, the gates, which looked like giant canine teeth, opened up and let them inside. Catherine was reluctant to go but followed Daiku's lead anyway, _not going to get out of here if I act like a coward all the time_, she thought. The inside surprisingly looked like a real castle, there was a diamond chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling, the floor looked like a giant checker board all black and white squares tempting Catherine to jump along the black ones like a little kid at the store. "Don't try it," Daiku warned as if he'd read her mind. "I tried that once and nearly killed myself, the panels think you're playing a game with them when you jump on the same colors. Except that instead of a stupid rhyme you lose your life if you mess up." Catherine straightened up like a soldier and was about to follow Daiku to the stairs when the giant teeth opened up behind them and in walked Katrina and the guys.

Katrina led the guys into the forest to the exact spot she'd been the night before; there was an empty cage and dead earth leading to it but nothing else in the clearing. "BLOB FREAK, GET YOUR..."

"$$?" Yusuke interupted.

"OUT HERE!" Katrina finished.

"Was that really a wise decision, I thought we wanted to have the element of surprise," Kurama asked.

A few seconds later a huge greenish black blob came into the clearing the ground behind him died and Katrina, and the other demons, almost puked at the stench emanating from it. "I see you've brought me more puppets, My Little Vixen," the blob said the last part like a title then he turned and gestured with a smaller arm-like blob and Catherine and the ten year old appeared by his sides. The boys face was blank but Catherine's lit up with a fake smile when she saw Katrina, "VIXEN! You came back to join us and you brought friends, YEA!" she screamed in a high childish voice. She took a step forward preparing to run over to Katrina but the blob shook its 'head' and she stood straight by his side again. "We came to get my friend back, you scum bag!" Katrina shouted engulfing her fists in flames.

"Of course you did, well if you want her you're going to have to fight her and destroy me, but you can't do that, my body, as ugly as it is indestructible. That's why I'm so happy that you brought me such handsome puppets, now I can move into one of their bodies and shed this one, then the ones I don't take will be my slaves along with you and your friend."

Katrina lunged at the blob but Catherine had punched her in the gut before she got near it. "Play with me, Kat, join me, you'll love it here. We have so much fun, Daiku and I, it's like a world from a Darren Shan novel!" Katrina was caught off guard at the sound of her best friend's normal voice but quickly regained her temper when Catherine's fist made contact with her gut. Yusuke was fighting with the kid and doing a whole lot better than she was with Catherine. The kid already had a black eye and his lip was bleeding though Yusuke had a cut above his eyebrow that made it hard for him to see. "Be careful, Yusuke, that child might still be alive deep down, try not to injure him too much," Kurama said as he and Hiei went after the blob. Kuwabara came to Katrina's aid and grabbed Catherine's wrist as she drew her hand back for another blow. "They remind me of the guys we fought in the Dark Tournament that were controlled by Dr. Ichigaki," he said. Katrina set her fist on fire again and punched Catherine in the face, that set off the ear bleeding screaming and Catherine pulled back into the shadows. "What'd you do that for, Katrina-chan? She's your best friend even if she's being controlled." Kuwabara shouted.

"I'm aware of that but the only way to save her is to stop her from killing us, LOOK OUT!" Katirna shouted as she shoved Kuwabara out of the way of a shadow scythe and was stabbed through the leg by it. Catherine had a perfect shot at Katrina's gut with that scythe but for some reason she changed its direction. Katirna swallowed a scream as the scythe disappeared and she shot a small fire ball at the spot that Catherine had been a second before.

Suddenly the clearing was dark and everyone looked up to see that they were inside a giant shadow dome. "What are you doing you stupid puppet?" the blob shouted. Then shadowy figures pulled free of the walls and started attacking Katrina and the guys; Yusuke fired his Spirit Gun at one of them and it disappeared as Kurama sliced one with his Rose Whip and Hiei sliced one with his katana and the guys disappeared like the shadow creatures. Kuwabara had his back turned and punched one of the creatures and disappeared as well, Katrina wasn't sure what was going on but she had the suspicion that Catherine was trying to help somehow so she set a shadow creature on fire and blacked out.

When everyone woke up they were laying outside of a castle made of bones and skin with huge canine teeth for doors. _I wonder if this was the Shan world that Catherine was talking about? _Katrina thought as she stood up and headed towards the castle doors; they opened and she headed inside the guys right behind her. The inside was like a checker board and there was a diamond chandelier hanging in the center of the ceiling. Katrina saw some stairs and headed toward them then stopped as she walked through a cold spot and shivered. "Whoa, why'd it get so cold?" she asked.

"There's spirit's here, that's why!" Kuwabara shouted in fear.

"Hey, Katrina just walked through you!" Catherine shouted at Daiku. "Why can't they see or hear us?"

"They must not be puppets of the Doc," he replied, "though I don't know how else they could've gotten here."

Katrina shouted Catherine's name excitedly, maybe it was Cat that she'd accidentally walked through!

"Is the way out of this place upstairs?" Catherine asked.

"Yeah, why, do you think we can get them upstairs?"

"Let's see," Catherine replied, and she grabbed Katrina's hand and tried to pull her up the stairs, her hand phased through Katrina's but she could tell Katrina understood because she told the guys to follow her upstairs. "She's becoming quite the leader," Catherine said to herself. "She always used to follow me around and tell me that everyone thought she'd make a great leader but she felt more comfortable as second in command."

"Did you say something?" Daiku asked half way up the stairs right behind the gang.

"Nothing," Catherine said as she ran to catch up with him.

At the top of the stairs there was another set of doors but they looked like real double doors this time, Katrina pushed them open and inside was a young man holding a chain that was connected to a metal collar around Catherine's throat and behind him was a giant redishes pulsing crystal heart. Katrina shot an arrow made of fire at the crystal but there was a shield around it, "Hmph, you think I'd leave myself open like that?" the man said, "Let me introduce myself properly, you may call me Dr. Raizuka, but soon you'll be calling me master."

Catherine ran over to her body to try and retake possession of it and was severely shocked and thrown backwards. "Ah, I see that Catherine's here with you, is Daiku here too?" Dr. Raizuka asked and was greeted with a cold chill through his gut as Daiku punched him. "Ha-ha, you two can't touch me, you're only spirits and you will stay that way unless your friends destroy my heart." Katrina signaled for Kurama and Hiei to try and take out the shield and Yusuke and Kuwabara to distract Dr. Raizuka while she tried to free Catherine's body.

Kurama pulled out his whip and Hiei his katana and they went to work attacking the shield while Yusuke shouted, "Hey you b$^$%#$! Why don't you fight us yourself?" and he charged his Spirit Gun and shot it. But the bullet went through the Doc and bounced off of the shield and nearly hit Kuwabara. "HEY! Urameshi, are ya tryin' ta kill me?"

"Oh, shut up Kuwabara and just attack the guy!" Yusuke shouted back as he started punching Dr. Raizuka, or trying to, as Katrina ran over to Catherine's body and grabbed the collar. Which did no good it only sent a huge jolt of electricity through her making her fall to the floor and curl up for a second to regain control of her twitching body and fry Catherine's already damaged body. Catherine's body screamed as her soul tried to get inside her body again and was again thrown to the floor.

"What are you doing?" Daiku shouted over all the noise.

"Trying to get back into my body what does it look like I'm doing?" Catherine shouted back as she dived towards her body and fried it.

"All you're succeeding in doing is killing yourself," Daiku growled as he grabbed Catherine and tried to stop her.

"No, I have a feeling that Doc trapped my body to keep an eye on it, that I can kill him somehow and he doesn't want my body unguarded."

"Well... stop trying to kill yourself and let me help."

"What did you have in mind?"

Katrina slowly got up and saw that the guys weren't having any luck with their assigned posts, she shot another arrow at the shield and once again it bounced off and disappeared. Then she noticed that something was happening to Catherine's collar, there was a key in a lock she hadn't noticed and an invisible hand turned it causing the collar to drop to the floor. Catherine's body slumped for a second and then slowly opened its eyes. "Kat?" the voice was Catherine's and so was the look of confusion and excitement in the eyes, "KAT! I'm back!" she shouted as she glomped her best friend. Katrina stood there the stunned and slowly hugged her friend and said, "I'm glad that you're back but do you have any idea how to get us out of here?" Catherine winked at her and disappeared into the shadows, reappearing on the other side of the shield and she swung a katana at the fragile crystal breaking it into a thousand pieces. "NOOO!" Dr. Raizuka shouted as he disappeared, the castle melted and everyone blacked out again.

When everyone opened their eyes they were back in the clearing but it was just them no cage or blob creature or anything else. Katrina's leg had stopped bleeding but she couldn't stand up and had a deep gash in her thigh; Catherine had burns but she was able to heal them before they became scars. Kurama healed Katrina's leg and helped her stand up, there would be another scar but with help she could walk. Catherine came over and whispered, "He really seems to like you, Kat, you should ask him out... or I'll do it for you."

"Shut up," Katrina whispered back blushing, "You look like crap," she added.

"You too, in fact you look worse than any of us, oh wait sorry that's just your normal face!" Catherine laughed and jumped away as Katrina tired to punch her.

"Could you please stop squirming, it makes it hard to help you, Katrina-san," Kurama said.

"Hey, lovebirds, are we going to head home or stand around in a clearing all day!" Yusuke shouted. Katrina pulled away from Kurama and tried to run and punch Yusuke and would have landed face first in the dirt if Kurama hadn't caught her.

"You shouldn't do that, you're going to reopen your wounds if you're not more careful," Kurama chided ignoring Yusuke's comment.

"Do you want me to punch him for you, Kat? It'll cost you though, you know what I want you to do as payment," Catherine teased, Katrina glared at her best friend and sighed in annoyance as she let Kurama help her walk back to the city.

Author's Note: *Damsel in distress


	8. Chapter 8

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Eight

Author's Note: From this point on the story is completely made up by me.

By the time everyone reached the city and headed their separate ways it was getting late, Catherine, Katrina and Daiku were staying with Yusuke that night. As soon as they were in his apartment Catherine and Daiku crashed on Yusuke's bed and Katrina curled up on the floor against a wall opposite his bed. The next morning's when the excitement started all over again; Catherine woke with a yawn and stretched. She sat up rubbing her eyes and looked over to see if Daiku was up and screamed she tried to jump out of bed but got tangled in the blanket and landed on the floor head first. "Mrgh, Cat, shut up it's too early for you to be causing trouble," Katrina mumbled from the corner. Daiku shot up, "What? What's wrong are we under atta-"

"Daiku, is that you?" Catherine interrupted him.

"What are you talking about, of course it's me, why wouldn't it be?"

"Look at yourself! You look like you're... our age!"

Daiku looked at himself and grabbed the blanket quickly covering himself better; he didn't know how it had happened but somehow he shot up to 5'7" in the middle of the night and now his clothes don't fit and they must have... torn and fallen off in the night because he was naked now. Last night Catherine and crashed on top of the blankets too tired to care and Daiku had curled up underneath them, luckily. "Uh, Catherine, could you get Katrina out of here and ask Yusuke if he has any clothes I could borrow?"

"You sure you want us to leave?" Catherine asked perversely.

"Yes, I believe he's sure, Cat, now let's get out of here before we see things we shouldn't," Katrina said suddenly awake and heading to the door grabbing Catherine on the way.

"Awww, you ruin everything, Kat."

"Deal with it; hey, Yusuke, we've gotta little problem!"

Later that day, after Daiku was properly clothed, Yusuke said the girls should take Daiku out to get more to wear so he wouldn't have to share his clothes. Katrina and Daiku groaned because they agree: shopping SUCKS but Catherine couldn't wait to turn Daiku into a mannequin.

"Hey, Kat, do you think we should've invited your 'boooyfriend' to come with us?" Catherine teased as they left Yusuke's apartment.

"Cat, that joke is getting so old it's nearly dead. In fact it just croaked," Katrina replied.

"Ha-ha, very funny, see, Daiku, I warned you she sucked at comebacks; I've tried to teach her but she's un-teachable."

"Who are you talking about when you tease her?" Daiku asked.

"Kurama, the guy who looks like a girl the one with long red hair..."

"Oh, yeah, I can see her ending up with him; they would make a great couple. So, Katrina, why haven't you asked him out yet, you guys have known each other for a while now right?"

Katrina looked about ready to punch Catherine and Daiku both and then gave in, "okay, first off, he's not my boyfriend, I barely know him-"

"You've known him for almost three months..." Cahterine interrupted.

"Two, I have a rule for myself when I get a crush on someone, I don't allow myself to have a crush on them until I've known them long enough to decide if I like them for who they are. And I repeat that I barely know Kurama, but yes... I guess I have a crush on him but I want the guy to ask me out. If he likes me then he'll ask me out, call me old fashioned but I prefer it that way and it means that I risk nothing if he doesn't like me."

"Stupid plan if you ask me, if you like him and want to go out with him you should ask him, if he doesn't like you then at least you'll know rather than waiting forever to find out," Daiku said.

"EXACTLY! I keep trying to get that through to her but she won't listen. I've even tried talking to Kurama to see if he'd tell me if he liked her but I wasn't able to find out," Catherine said.

The conversation to a swing into clothes and other things after that because they reached the store they were looking for. Catherine had Daiku model all sorts of clothes for her while Katrina buried her nose in a book praying it would all be over soon and they could find a book store to browse, her collection was already running low, Kurama had suggested some interesting books to her and she wanted to try and find them before anything else interupted her life. Eventually Catherine's stomach growled and they headed to the register to buy the items Daiku and Catherine agreed on then left to find somewhere to go for lunch. Katrina decides to attempt to get back at Catherine so she said, "So, Cat, how's it going with you and Hiei?"

"I haven't seen him lately actually, of course I imagine he hates me, you know how he is and how annoying I can get, but I can't help it his hair is just so COOL! I love the way it defies gravity and has that white starburst in it, and he's fun-size! So I won't give up until I find another guy to chase around," Catherine replied giddily.

"Oh, that reminds me of the conversation you had with Gensu before we left and all the typical craziness happened, I know he said more to you than what you told me. What was the rest of his conversation about?"

"I asked him why a hot young guy like himself was constantly pestering us and didn't he have a girlfriend to occupy his free time."

"Okay, well what else did he say 'cause your reaction was kinda funny."

"He asked if I'd be interested in being his girlfriend. I said no, then he asked if you'd be interested in his offer and I told him that I highly doubted it. Besides it wouldn't have worked out with the two of you being in different dimensions and your policy as well."

Katrina blushed at the thought of an older not to mention hot guy like Gensu showing an interest in her, even if he asked Cat first. "Hey, I saw that!"

"Saw what?"

"You totally blushed! Maybe I should call Gensu right now and see if his offer still stands, Hmm?"

"HECK NO!"

"Ah, so loyal to Kurama are we?"  
"I didn't say that I... just... have... l-like you said I have a policy. I barely know Gensu and who knows what he's really like, the thoughts actually kinda creepy."

Daiku cleared his throat, "Um, terribly sorry to interrupt but I think I spotted an ice cream place across the street... if anyone's interested." Catherine barely checks the traffic before she dashed across the street and into the ice cream shop abandoning her friends for her favorite treat.

"Nope, don't worry about us, Cat, we could get hit by a car trying to chase after you, but don't concern yourself with us," Katrina said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Hey, Katrina, can I talk to you real quick, before Catherine notices we're not behind her?"

"Sure, what's up?"

They walk over to lean against a building and Daiku slides down the wall, Katrina following his lead. "Um... does Catherine like it if guys ask her out?"

"Uhm, I don't know that's something you'd have to ask her yourself why, you like her?"

Daiku blushed, "Well, um, yeah, I guess I kinda do. But she'd probably never be willing to go out with me, I'm only fifteen, I'm a little kid compared to you two."  
"Hey, she's eighteen yeah, but that's only a three year difference, I had a friend that was eighteen and she was dating a fourteen year old and they had a great relationship, plus she was taller than him. You might be three years younger than her but you're taller and could easily pass for an eighteen year old and besides I doubt that it's illegal for you to date an older woman. You never know until you try, so if you're really interested in her then you should ask her out."

"Well, yeah, I guess you're right, I should ask, I'll never know until I try. And you should do the same with Kurama, forget your stupid policy and ask him out, he seems like a nice guy to me, even if he turns you down I'm sure he'll do his best not to hurt you."

"Okay, we're talking about your relationship situation right now not mine, so I'm gonna go find a book store and you're gonna go ask Cat out. I've got my cell if you guys need me so... yeah."

"Thanks, Katrina."

"Onee-chan."

"What?"

"Call me Onee-chan, no one's ever called me that and I think it would be fun. I've tried to get my younger sibs into the habit but it didn't catch on and you remind me of my little bro. You not only look like him but you're cute and stupid about girls like him too," Katrina teased.

"Alright, thanks for the advice, Onee-chan. Ya know, if it's not too weird I might just stick with calling you that. See ya later, Onee-chan!" Daiku called as he crossed the street to ask Catherine out.

Katrina sighed and got up off of the sidewalk; she wiped off her butt and headed off down the street to see if she could find that book store Kurama said he loved. At Genkai's temple Kuwabara was following Yukina around like a lost puppy and she was laughing and enjoying his company. Genkai was in the arcade kicking Yusuke's butt at some video game or another as Keiko walked in with tea for all of them. Kurama was at work and Hiei was patrolling the boarder keeping an eye out for humans accidentally straying across. When Katrina entered the book store a tiny bell tinkled over the door and she inhaled the scent of old books and dust then headed off to find a quite, secluded spot to make a phone call. Her talk with Daiku reminded her of how much she really missed her family, she had no idea how much time had passed between the two worlds but it felt like she hadn't contacted them in years.

Back at the ice cream shop Daiku took a deep breath and walked over and sat down across from Catherine at one of the outdoor tables. "Hey, Daiku, where'd Kat go? Did she get lost crossing the street or something?"

"She said she was going to find a book store but that she's got her phone if we need to call her. Um... can I ask you something?" Catherine had be watching her ice cream and licking around when it started melting but the tone of Daiku's voice made her look up at him. He gulped and blushed a little, the sunlight reflected off of a window and shone around Catherine making her look like she was glowing. "Woul- well... I mean... Uh... Catherine would... would you like to go out with me sometime?" he gushed. Catherine sat there for a second her ice cream starting to drip down her hand. Daiku started to think that asking her was a bad idea and mentally kicked himself, he sounded like a moron, besides why would she want to go out with a kid like him when she liked Hiei?

"Yeah, sure. How about right now? Katrina's at the book store and we can call her and tell her that we're going on a date and to not wait up for us. What'd you have in mind?" Catherine said.

It was now Daiku's turn to be surprised but he quickly recovered, "Uh, well actually I hadn't thought that far ahead, I thought you'd say no. Um... a movie maybe or dinner or just a walk in the park?"

"Sure."

"Sure to which one?"

"All of them, let's see what's playing if there's anything interesting we can go see it and if there's time we can go to the park before the movie and then to dinner. After that we can head back to Yusuke's and there ya go we had a full day."

"Okay, let's go to the movies then, I guess," Daiku said a little thrown off at Catherine's blunt and sudden idea.

In the back of the book store there was a little room with book shelves along most of the walls and a window seat with nice soft cushions warmed from the sunlight streaming in. Katrina walked over and sat down leaning against the wall, she pulled out her cell and stared at it, _I should call Gensu and see if he can connect my call to my parents_, she thought instead she put the phone back in her pocket and pulled her legs up and rested her chin on her knees. She closed her eyes and relaxed in the warm sun trying not to cry because she felt she had no reason too. Yeah, she missed her family but she hadn't been gone that long and Gensu told them that they could go back home so it's not like she'd never see them again, but inside she felt like she did when she was little and spent the night with a friend for the first time: homesick.

"Oh, excuse me I didn't- hey, aren't you the girl from the park that caught my sister when she fell off the playground equipment?" someone asked. Katrina started a little at the sound of someone else in the room, she was sore and a little tired, she must have dozed off. Looking up she saw a handsome young man standing in front of her.

"You mean the little girl..."

"Karin."

"Yeah, Karin I remember, it's nice to see you again... uh, I'm sorry I'm terrible with names."  
"That's okay I was rude and didn't give you my name last time we met, I'm Andrew, and you are?"

"My name's Katirna, it's nice to meet you, Andrew, but how-"

"Karin's not really my little sister I just call her that I've been baby- sitting her for most of her life so she's like a sister to me," Andrew explained before Katrina could finish her question. "Mind if I sit down with you?"  
"Oh, no, that's fine, I was just thinking and I must have dozed off, It's really comfortable here."

Andrew sat next to Katrina, a little closer than she would have liked but she was against the wall on one side and she didn't feel like being rude and asking him if he would scoot over a little.

"What were you thinking about, you look like you might have been crying are you okay?"

"Oh, I didn't know I'd cried, um... well, I haven't been here in Japan for very long my friend and I only got here a few months ago but... and I know this is probably stupid but... I already feel kind of homesick. Funny really since when I was younger I couldn't wait to graduate and move out and now barely three months later I want to go ho- home," Katrina's voice broke and she felt tears trickling down her cheeks. A warm, soft hand brushed them away as Andrew whispered, "Hey, hey, it's okay, don't cry.,. It's fine to be homesick there's nothing wrong with that. You'll be okay, you said you came with your friend right, so you're not alone and it's not like you can never see your family again right?"

Katrina nodded and took a deep breath but she couldn't stop the tears, the sadness was overwhelming and she couldn't hold it in. Andrew pulled Katrina's legs over his lap and gently positioned her so that she was resting her head on his shoulder, "It's going to be okay, you're going to be okay, just let it out if you need to, it's alright to cry." Katrina almost wanted to laugh just a second ago Andrew was telling her not to cry; now he was saying it was alright too. She felt uncomfortable being held like a child by a stranger but he was so warm and comforting to her that she relaxed and let her guard down. He leaned forward and gently kissed her forehead like a big brother or father, then he kissed her eyes and the tip of her nose. Andrew's lips softly trailed off her nose and down along her cheek... then before Katrina realized what was happening he was kissing her lips. She tried to pull back but the wall was behind her and he was preventing her from moving, Katrina panicked as she felt his tongue part her lips and enter her mouth. Biting down hard on his tongue Katrina tasted blood and felt Andrew pull sharply back.

"What was-" Katrina didn't get to finish because Andrew suddenly had her pinned beneath him on the window seat his lips pressed hard against her and his hands trying to explore up her shirt.

Katrina wanted to scream, to punch him, kick him, something but her mind wasn't connecting with the rest of her body and she was helpless and terrified when Andrew was ripped off of her and she heard him shout, "What the H*^&!" Katrina sat up just as Andrew was pinned to a bookshelf by another young man; a young man with long red hair.

"If you ever come near Katrina-chan ever again, I will not hesitate to-"

"Kurama?" Katrina asked as she spit Andrew's blood out of her mouth.

Kurama turned around still pinning Andrew to the wall and his glare changed to a look of concern, "Katrina-chan, are you okay?"

"Now... now I am wha- look out!" Kurama turned and was punched in the face by Andrew, he dropped him and Andrew took a swing at Kurama again. But Kurama was faster and caught his blow this time and twisted Andrew's arm behind his back, "I suggest for your sake that you leave immediately and never come back," he said in a polite but angry voice. When he let Andrew go he fell to the floor but scrambled up and ran out of the store flicking Kurama and Katrina off. Once he was gone Kurama turned back to Katrina and inspected her from where he stood assessing the damage done to her. "I'm alright, Kurama, I bit him that's where the blood was from. What are you doing here, Uh! Thank you for doing that I mean, I- I just froze he caught me off guard and I... I don't know what happened." Kurama continued to stare at her and she started getting self- conscious and blush then he asked if she would mind if he sat down. She nodded and he came over and sat a respectable distance from her, she wanted to curl up in his arms and cry again but felt that after what had just happened and that she didn't want to upset Kurama it was best to stay where she was at. The he startled her, "Would you like... a... hug, Katrina-san?"

"You... you can call me chan or just Katrina or even Kat if you want to... and... yeah, I'm not usually into hugs but, I could really use one right now. Thanks," she said as she scooted closer to him and he tentatively wrapped an arm around her and gave her a gentle and quick hug.


	9. Chapter 9

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Nine

A couple of months later Genkai called Yusuke's place while Katrina was reading and Catherine was in the shower so Daiku answered. "Hello?"

"Who is this?" Genkai asked she hadn't met Daiku yet.

"This is Daiku, Catherine's boyfriend, who's this?"

"Ah, so you're the brat's boyfriend, where is she?"

"She's busy at the moment who are you?"

"This is Genkai, now get the vixen or the brat but give the phone to one of them I don't feel like talking to someone I don't know, about things that are none of their business."

"Vixen? Oh, hang on," Daiku put a hand over the phone and called, "Onee-chan, phone, it's Genkai!"

Katrina put her book down and got up slowly, stretching and rubbing her tired eyes as she made her way to the phone; she took it from Daiku and said hello.

"Katrina, get Catherine and head over here now, you two have had enough time off now it's time to train some more. *CLICK*" Genkai said what she'd wanted and hung up the phone. Katrina sighed and put the phone back on the receiver then knocked on the bathroom door, "Cat, Genkai wants us at her place fifteen minutes ago!"

"NOOO!" Katrina heard Catherine screech, "I don't wanna go back for more training I thought we were done!"

Katrina ignored Catherine's complaints and headed back to their room to make sure all her things were packed; Catherine barged in with soaking, dripping hair a couple minutes later. Daiku was right behind her and asked, "Who's Genkai and why does she want you back for training?"

"Genkai is Yusuke's old friend/trainer and she's a slave driver when it comes to training!" Catherine whined.

"Aw, c'mon she's not that bad, Cat, besides she probably wants us back so she can teach us how to change forms and remain in control of ourselves."

"If that's the case I wonder how she'll go about it. Hey, how long do ya think she's gonna keep us this time? If it's very long do you think she'll let Daiku come and train with us?"

"Neh, I doubt she'll let Daiku come, I can't imagine her wanting to put up with another student, she's already got her hands full with you and Yukina lives with her and Kuwabara's always visiting. Training wise... who knows, Genkai's unpredictable."

"You mean we're going to have to LD, Cat? That's not fair; I want to train too..." Daiku's voice trailed off at the look his girlfriend gave him.

"Trust me, you do not want to train with Genkai, Daiku, you should ask Yusuke to train you if you want to train so badly. And it wouldn't really be a long distance relationship for you guys, since Genkai is only a two hour train ride from here," Katrina said.

"Che, a two hour train ride and a mile and a half of nothing but stairs to get to her temple," Catherine chimed in. After a little more complaining and figuring out what she and Daiku would do Catherine packed her things and asked Katrina to dry her hair. Katrina sighed but warmed her hands and brushed them over Catherine's hair and when she was done Catherine looked like she had an afro. "Heh, oops, didn't expect that," Katrina giggled.

"What? What'd you- AH! Give me a brush now!" Catherine shouted, searching frantically through her bag for a brush.

"Aww, I like your hair better this way," Katrina teased.

"Shut up, we need to get going and you messing with my hair isn't going to get us out if here any faster."

Katrina and Daiku helped Catherine tame her hair and then the girls gathered their things and headed to the door; before they got there Daiku grabbed Catherine's wrist and spun her towards him into a kiss, a long kiss that turned into a lot of kisses.

"If you two are going to make out I think I'll just head off to the train station without you," Katrina said, rolling her eyes. She headed out the door and Catherine slowly pulled away from Daiku, "I'd better get going then," she said, "Keep in touch, visit every once in a while 'kay? Don't forget about your girlfriend."

"Tell Onee-chan I said bye." Catherine was at the door but stopped and turned to ask, "Why do you call her Onee-chan?"

"A couple months ago, you remember when we had our first date? I asked her for some advice and before we split up she told me to call her Onee-chan. She said I reminded her of her brother, why do you ask?"

"Just curious, hey maybe I should call her Onee-chan too, she is older and more mature than me as well, besides maybe it'll annoy her. Hey, have you noticed that she seems... a little more cautious when she has to go out by herself now? I've been concerned about that too, ever since we started dating she seems on edge more often than not, I wonder if it's because of us."

"I don't know, maybe you should talk to her about it you're her best friend after all."

"Yeah, you're right; bye, remember to visit and don't forget me!"

"Never in a million years, bye."

Catherine left Yusuke's apartment and found Katrina staring over the railing waiting for her, "Hey, I thought you'd be almost to the station by now, are you okay?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I'm fine I just didn't feel like riding the train by myself, that's all. Daiku hogs you all the time so I thought I'd wait for you," Katrina teased, but Catherine could see in her eyes that Katrina was hiding something, her relationship with Daiku might be part of the problem but she doubted that. Katrina was always supportive and encouraging of Daiku and Catherine's relationship and she spent plenty of time with her best friend. And Katrina was usually all about being able to take care of herself because she hated feeling helpless, but lately she seemed scared of the world, and Catherine remembered that the day she and Daiku had had their first date she'd seen Katrina and Kurama together but not in a relationship way, it was like he was comforting her after a traumatic experience. Catherine had asked Katrina about it but she said she didn't feel like talking about it, and Kurama seemed to come over more often and spend time with Katrina, which was great but Katrina always seemed depressed around everyone lately.

When Katrina and Catherine were on the train Catherine inquired about it, "Katrina, is everything okay? You seem to be really depressed lately even when Kurama comes over to hang out with you. And he's been coming over a lot lately, I think he likes you, has he asked you out yet?"

Katrina had been reading her book but glanced at Catherine and quickly turned back to her book, it was a very quick glance but Catherine could see tears forming in Katrina's eyes. "Katrina, what's wrong? Will you please tell me, we used to talk about everything and now you've really retreated into yourself and your books, I can't help you if you won't talk to me?"

"I- I'd really rather not talk about it here," Katrina whispered.

Catherine understood that whatever was bothering Katrina was serious so she kept her mouth shut but gave her friend a strong hug and rubbed her back for a bit. At one point Katrina fell asleep and leaned against Catherine, some people gave the girls weird looks and Catherine glared at them and they looked away.

Katrina was still asleep when they reached the stop the girls needed so Catherine woke her and they got off and headed for Genkai's place. Catherine wanted to get Katrina to talk but she could see she wasn't ready so she waited until they were on the stairs leading to Genkai's before she asked again.

"Alright, Kat, it's time to talk. What's been bothering you so much lately?"

Katrina took a deep stuttering breath and said, "Okay, you have to promise not to tell anyone about this, Kurama is the only one who knows what happened and I don't want the other's to worry about me."

"I promise, we're best friends remember, I never tell anyone what we say to each other unless it's okay with you," Catherine replied and gave Katrina another gentle hug.

Katrina took another deep breath and then told Catherine everything that happened two months before after she'd run across the street to the ice cream shop. A few times Katrina had to stop and take a breath or wipe away tears and blow her nose but when she was finished telling her story she sighed with relief and smiled the first genuine smile in over two months.

"Wow, that's horrible, I'm so glad that Kurama was able to stop that guy before he did any more to you; Kat, I- I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you, if you'd come with us that wouldn't have happened to you. I wish I'd taken more notice sooner and helped you, I'm so sorry!" Catherine said giving her bffl a giant rib crushing hug refusing to let go.

"ACH! Cat, I... can't... breathe!" Katrina gasped.

"Don't worry we'll find this guy and I'll take care of him for you, he'll never touch another woman like that again!" Catherine vowed.

"Cat, don't, I was scared of him but thanks to you and Kurama; I think I feel a whole lot safer and better. No one's going to get to me like that again; but beating the guy up won't do any good. Now, we'd better get to Genkai's sometime today or she's going to make us train through the night," Katrina finished with a smile as she took off running up the steps.

"Heh, hey, wait up! You said Kurama's been helping you and that he saved you and gave you a hug, so does this mean you two are an official couple now?"

"You never know!" Katrina called back.

"C'mon, Onee-chan, if you two aren't a couple yet then I'm going to make you be a couple it's obvious that you two are crazy about each other so just admit it and give everybody what they've been waiting for. We can all see it; you guys are perfect for each other!"

Katrina stopped and Catherine nearly ran her over, "Wh-" Catherine cut herself off when she saw Kurama walking down the steps a little surprised to see them. "Hey, Kurama! So are you and Kat an official couple or what she won't tell me," Catherine called.

When Kurama was standing just a couple of stairs above them he answered Catherine's question, "Well, I don't know that you would call us a couple, we have been spending more time together but I was..." he stopped and looked at Katrina with a question in his eyes, _Have you told her about what happened? Is it okay for me to bring it up? _Katrina nodded and Kurama went on, "I was helping her through a rough time, we weren't really dating but..." Kurama turned to Katrina again and spoke directly to her, "If you want us to be a couple then I am perfectly fine with that, I've grown to like you more than any girl I've meet in a long time. Katrina, would you be my girlfriend?"

Katrina's entire face turned a deep red and Catherine tried to contain a laugh but couldn't, "C'mon, Onee-chan, you've liked him since you met him and you said that you wanted him to ask you so just say yes!"

Katrina looked down and took a deep breath, "Yeah, yes, I would be honored," she replied. Catherine burst out laughing so hard she nearly fell backwards, "You two are definitely perfect for each other! You're both so formal in your questions and answers! HAHAHAHAHAH!"

Kurama and Katrina cracked up too as Katrina grabbed Catherine's shoulder to keep her from falling; when the laughing had settled Catherine said, "Whelp, I guess I'll leave you two lovebirds- I mean kitsunes- alone, here give me your bag, Onee-chan and I'll let Genkai know you're coming." Katrina blushed again but handed her bag to Catherine and walked up the steps to stand in front of Kurama. As Catherine walked past them Kurama pulled Katrina into a kiss and she blushed so hard her face burned _my first kiss_, she thought, _well, my first official kiss_.

"I'd better let you go so Genkai doesn't kill us; I'll visit as much as I can. Goodbye... Katrina," Kurama said, pulling out of the kiss.

"Bye, if anyone asks their curiosity can now be satisfied," Katrina smiled as she waved goodbye to her boyfriend.

Genkai wasn't happy to be kept waiting but she quickly explained what the girls had already guessed: they were going to train in their demon forms. "There isn't much that I can do to help you two with this but you need to know how to change form at will. When you have accomplished that your training will be over. . . Unless there's something else I need to teach you later." And with that Genkai left the girls to figure out how to change form on their own. "Well, I'm going to try and meditate in the woods, maybe the shadow realm will help you, Cat," Katrina said, as she walked towards the tree line, "Say hi to Yukina for me if you see her!" she finished as she disappeared. Cat heaved a sarcastic sigh and opened a portal into the shadow realm and stepped through it into total darkness.

After what felt like hours of nothing but floating in the dark with nothing happening, Catherine yawned and decided to check on Katrina's progress. She located Katrina's shadow and floated through it; she found Katrina still meditating in a tree but she was obviously having better luck than Catherine. Katrina had kitsune ears and a tail and her outfit and hair had changed too: her hair was in a single, long, braid down her back; she was wearing baggy cameo pants and a black tank top. Then Katrina slowly opened her eyes and Catherine saw that they were a deep scarlet. "Hey, Cat, how long have you been hiding in my shadow?" she asked.

"Not long I only just popped up to check on your progress, how long have you been out here? You look like you accomplished what Genkai expects of you."

"Hmm?" Katrina looked down at herself, "Oh, I guess I did, well it looks like you did too, your eyes are completely black and have shadows streaming out the sides of them, it's kinda creepy, and your outfits changed too."

"It has? Wait. My eyes are shadows now? COOL!" Catherine looked down at herself and saw that she was wearing black form fitting jeans and a black midriff top; her hair was up in a ponytail and her nails looked like they'd grown and were dipped in black poison.

While she was taking in her own appearance Katrina was doing the same thing, she felt her ears and tail and nearly fell out of the tree in excitement. "We look so cool!" the girls said in unison.

"I wonder if Genkai will make us stay since we managed to change or if she wants us to actually train in these forms." Catherine said. Katrina jumped out of the tree and Catherine offered her a ride through the shadow realm back to Genkai's, "I love ya like a sister, Cat, but there is absolutely no way I'm going back into that place again."

"Suit yourself, it's getting dark and we're a long way from Genkai's," Catherine shrugged her shoulders as she sank into Katrina's shadow.

"What better way to test out my senses than in the dark?" Katrina replied, but Catherine was already gone.


	10. Chapter 10

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Ten

Catherine was having a delightful dream about Hiei skipping through a field of flowers lighting matches and set the flowers on fire with a giant goofy smile on his face*; when she was rudely awoken by a bucket of cold water being dumped on her. "HRAAAAAAAHHHHH! WHAT THE H-!" she screamed. Katrina dropped the bucket and ran out of the room laughing as Catherine jumped up and dashed after her. Then she slipped into the shadows and popped out of the floor two feet in front of Katrina; Katrina skidded and turned a corner heading out side. Catherine slipped into the shadows again and came up grabbing Katrina's ankle's effectively tripping her. She fell flat on her face and shouted a muffled "OW!" into the floor because she'd bruised her nose, rolling over she laughed at her angry friend. "I- couldn't hel- help it! Genkai told me to do it and who am I to argue with Sensei?"

"Coward..." Catherine grumbled, and started laughing as well.  
"Here I'll dry you off if you'd like?" Katrina asked.

"Much appreciated, Kat. So let me guess, Genkai's got more training for us?"

"Actually no, she said the gang's coming over and she wants us to make lunch for everyone. Plus there's supposed to be some new guests she wants' us to meet. She say's they're old friends of the gang's and that they don't know they're coming so we need to keep quiet about it."

Catherine groaned, "Fine, I'll cook but you have to clean."

"Deal! I hate cooking."

After Catherine was dry and dressed she and Katrina headed to the kitchen to get started they knew they were going to be making a big meal and they had a lot of work to do. Catherine told Katrina what pots and pans to get out while she found the ingredients that she'd need and once everything was set up she started making lunch. Since there wasn't anything else for Katrina to do until after the meal she grabbed a book and went up to the roof.

Eventually Catherine popped out of Katrina's shadow and said that everyone was showing up so it was almost time for lunch and Genkai told them to set the really long table. Katrina put her book in her back pocket and jumped down near the kitchen; inside Yukina and Catherine were already setting up and she joined them. Keiko and Botan came in a few minutes later and asked if the girls would like help and before they knew it the table was set and everyone was seated waiting to dig in. Keiko sat next to Yusuke and Kuwabara and Yukina sat next to each other the same went for Daiku and Catherine and Botan sat on one side of Katrina while Kurama sat on the other. Genkai came in and announced that the surprise guests had arrived and in came a little boy with stars under his eyes, a huge guy with a purple mow hawk, a red haired guy with a horn in the middle of his head, and a young man with silver hair and green bangs that looked almost plastic. Yusuke and Kuwabara jumped up and shouted a mix of names while Kurama smiled and walked over to say hello to everyone as well.

"Gin, it's great to see you again! Chu, you up for a fight after lunch? Hey, Rinku try not to kill Kuwabara; Toya it's been forever since we saw you, how has everyone been?" Yusuke asked. The reunion went on for a few more minutes before Catherine jumped up and shouted, "Hey, are you forgetting something? I slaved over an evil stove for hours to bring you men this feast and you're all totally disregarding it. I thought men followed their stomachs, you can have your lovely reunion AFTER we eat!"

Gin started laughing so hard he nearly puked, when he'd finally caught his breathe he replied, "Well, she's got a big mouth and a wit to go with it are you sure you ain't related to Yusuke?"

Katrina started laughing so hard she fell out of her seat as Catherine jumped up to shout, "How dare you compare me to that oaf! Everyone knows I'm a million times smarter than him, there is absolutely NO WAY we could be related to each other!" Botan leaned over and helped Katrina back up only for her to fall again as Jin appeared floating in her face. "Hello, there, and who might you be? Another red head to add to the group? I hope that your smart 'cause everyone knows that if your friend there's a dumb as Yusuke then Kurama and Hiei need someone on their side to counter the stupidity." Jin grinned from ear to ear, "By the way where is Hiei anyway?"

"I don't think Cat would be happy to be lumped in with Kuwabara and Yusuke. My name's Katrina by the way. And I have no clue where Hiei is, we haven't really seen him since Cat glomped him and started playing with his hair," Katrina replied still giggling and enjoying Jin's Irish accent.

Someone cleared their throat and Jin turned to see Kurama, "Would you please back away from my girlfriend so that she can get up, Jin?" Jin blinked startled by what Kurama had said but backed away.

"Ah, so the lovely little lady's already taken, that's too bad. 'Course I'm glad that you finally found yourself a girl, Kurama, how long have you been together?"

Kurama helped Katrina up and she was quickly glomped by an ecstatic Botan who shouted, "KATRINA I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU!" Startled by Botan's outburst everyone went quiet and stared at her and the girl being crushed in her arms. "What do you mean, Botan?" Keiko asked.

"Katrina and Kurama are boyfriend and girlfriend now!"

"... That's not even the best part," Catherine said with an evil gleam in her eye. "You guys should have seen the-" Katrina jerked free of Botan's death glomp and clamped her hand over Catherine's mouth. "If you know what's good for you, you'd better lose that thought quick and never bring it up again," Katrina whispered menacingly in Catherine's ear. Yukina tilted her head in an adorable manner and said, "Should have seen what, Catherine-Chan?"

Catherine pulled Katrina's hand off of her mouth and finished, "way he asked her and she responded. It was priceless, you'd all be laughing so hard; man, I wish Hiei was here to telepathically show you guys cause just telling you isn't nearly as funny. But I can't tell you or Kat'll kill me."

"Aw, c'mon, Kat, lighten up and let her tell us. A funny story on Kurama's expense would be so worth it," Yusuke begged. Katrina went red in the face and Catherine took that as the okay to tell what happened. "Okay, yesterday Kat and I were heading up here to Genkai's when we ran into Kurama on the stairs. I started teasing him about how he and Katrina would make a great couple and wondering if he'd ever ask her to be his girlfriend when he said... and I quote," Catherine tried imitating the way Kurama had talked, "'If you want us to be a couple then I am perfectly fine with that, I've grown to like you more than any girl I've meet in a long time. Katrina, would you be my girlfriend?' and then Katrina said, 'Yeah, yes, I would be honored'" Katrina was red in the face as she glared at Catherine who just burst out laughing with Yusuke and most everyone else.

"Man, Kurama, I didn't' know your speech habits were contagious!" Yusuke gasped as he laughed.

Botan scooped up Yukina, Keiko, and Catherine and started whispering a plan she'd just come up with, after lunch they had a surprise for Katrina. Catherine grinned when Katrina looked at her, "What are you girls planning?" she asked.

"It's nothing, Katrina-Chan, don't worry about it," Keiko replied as she headed to the table to eat.

Daiku grabbed Catherine's wrist and asked her if they were ever going to dig into the meal she'd prepared or if they were waiting for it to rot. Catherine gave him a quick kiss and they sat down and started eating; eventually everyone else joined them and lunch finally officially commenced.

As soon as lunch was over the girls scooped up Katrina and headed for the train station and the boys went outside to fight. Katrina immediately knew what they had planned for her and started fighting to get free and run for her life. "Oh, calm down, Katrina-Chan, we're not going to hurt you just get you some new clothes and maybe a makeover as well," Botan said.


	11. Chapter 11

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Eight

Author's Note: From this point on the story is completely made up by me.

By the time everyone reached the city and headed their separate ways it was getting late, Catherine, Katrina and Daiku were staying with Yusuke that night. As soon as they were in his apartment Catherine and Daiku crashed on Yusuke's bed and Katrina curled up on the floor against a wall opposite his bed. The next morning's when the excitement started all over again; Catherine woke with a yawn and stretched. She sat up rubbing her eyes and looked over to see if Daiku was up and screamed she tried to jump out of bed but got tangled in the blanket and landed on the floor head first. "Mrgh, Cat, shut up it's too early for you to be causing trouble," Katrina mumbled from the corner. Daiku shot up, "What? What's wrong are we under atta-"

"Daiku, is that you?" Catherine interrupted him.

"What are you talking about, of course it's me, why wouldn't it be?"

"Look at yourself! You look like you're... our age!"

Daiku looked at himself and grabbed the blanket quickly covering himself better; he didn't know how it had happened but somehow he shot up to 5'7" in the middle of the night and now his clothes don't fit and they must have... torn and fallen off in the night because he was naked now. Last night Catherine and crashed on top of the blankets too tired to care and Daiku had curled up underneath them, luckily. "Uh, Catherine, could you get Katrina out of here and ask Yusuke if he has any clothes I could borrow?"

"You sure you want us to leave?" Catherine asked perversely.

"Yes, I believe he's sure, Cat, now let's get out of here before we see things we shouldn't," Katrina said suddenly awake and heading to the door grabbing Catherine on the way.

"Awww, you ruin everything, Kat."

"Deal with it; hey, Yusuke, we've gotta little problem!"

Later that day, after Daiku was properly clothed, Yusuke said the girls should take Daiku out to get more to wear so he wouldn't have to share his clothes. Katrina and Daiku groaned because they agree: shopping SUCKS but Catherine couldn't wait to turn Daiku into a mannequin.

"Hey, Kat, do you think we should've invited your 'boooyfriend' to come with us?" Catherine teased as they left Yusuke's apartment.

"Cat, that joke is getting so old it's nearly dead. In fact it just croaked," Katrina replied.

"Ha-ha, very funny, see, Daiku, I warned you she sucked at comebacks; I've tried to teach her but she's un-teachable."

"Who are you talking about when you tease her?" Daiku asked.

"Kurama, the guy who looks like a girl the one with long red hair..."

"Oh, yeah, I can see her ending up with him; they would make a great couple. So, Katrina, why haven't you asked him out yet, you guys have known each other for a while now right?"

Katrina looked about ready to punch Catherine and Daiku both and then gave in, "okay, first off, he's not my boyfriend, I barely know him-"

"You've known him for almost three months..." Catherine interrupted.

"Two, I have a rule for myself when I get a crush on someone, I don't allow myself to have a crush on them until I've known them long enough to decide if I like them for who they are. And I repeat that I barely know Kurama, but yes... I guess I have a crush on him but I want the guy to ask me out. If he likes me then he'll ask me out, call me old fashioned but I prefer it that way and it means that I risk nothing if he doesn't like me."

"Stupid plan if you ask me, if you like him and want to go out with him you should ask him, if he doesn't like you then at least you'll know rather than waiting forever to find out," Daiku said.

"EXACTLY! I keep trying to get that through to her but she won't listen. I've even tried talking to Kurama to see if he'd tell me if he liked her but I wasn't able to find out," Catherine said.

The conversation took a swing into clothes and other things after that because they reached the store they were looking for. Catherine had Daiku model all sorts of clothes for her while Katrina buried her nose in a book praying it would all be over soon and they could find a book store to browse, her collection was already running low, Kurama had suggested some interesting books to her and she wanted to try and find them before anything else interrupted her life. Eventually Catherine's stomach growled and they headed to the register to buy the items Daiku and Catherine agreed on then left to find somewhere to go for lunch. Katrina decided to attempt to get back at Catherine so she said, "So, Cat, how's it going with you and Hiei?"

"I haven't seen him lately actually, of course I imagine he hates me, you know how he is and how annoying I can get, but I can't help it his hair is just so COOL! I love the way it defies gravity and has that white starburst in it, and he's fun-size! So I won't give up until I find another guy to chase around," Catherine replied giddily.

"Oh, that reminds me of the conversation you had with Gensu before we left and all the typical craziness happened I know he said more to you than what you told me. What was the rest of his conversation about?"

"I asked him why a hot young guy like himself was constantly pestering us and didn't he have a girlfriend to occupy his free time."

"Okay, well what else did he say 'cause your reaction was kinda funny."

"He asked if I'd be interested in being his girlfriend. I said no, then he asked if you'd be interested in his offer and I told him that I highly doubted it. Besides it wouldn't have worked out with the two of you being in different dimensions and your policy as well."

Katrina blushed at the thought of an older not to mention hot guy like Gensu showing an interest in her, even if he asked Cat first. "Hey, I saw that!"

"Saw what?"

"You totally blushed! Maybe I should call Gensu right now and see if his offer still stands, Hmm?"

"HECK NO!"

"Ah, so loyal to Kurama are we?"  
"I didn't say that I... just... have... l-like you said I have a policy. I barely know Gensu and who knows what he's really like, the thoughts actually kinda creepy."

Daiku cleared his throat, "Um, terribly sorry to interrupt but I think I spotted an ice cream place across the street... if anyone's interested." Catherine barely checked the traffic before she dashed across the street and into the ice cream shop abandoning her friends for her favorite treat.

"Nope, don't worry about us, Cat, we could get hit by a car trying to chase after you, but don't concern yourself with us," Katrina said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Hey, Katrina, can I talk to you real quick, before Catherine notices we're not behind her?"

"Sure, what's up?"

They walk over to lean against a building and Daiku slides down the wall, Katrina following his lead. "Um... does Catherine like it if guys ask her out?"

"Uhm, I don't know that's something you'd have to ask her yourself why, you like her?"

Daiku blushed, "Well, um, yeah, I guess I kinda do. But she'd probably never be willing to go out with me, I'm only fifteen, I'm a little kid compared to you two."  
"Hey, she's eighteen yeah, but that's only a three year difference, I had a friend that was eighteen and she was dating a fourteen year old and they had a great relationship, plus she was taller than him. You might be three years younger than her but you're taller and could easily pass for an eighteen year old and besides I doubt that it's illegal for you to date an older woman. You never know until you try, so if you're really interested in her then you should ask her out."

"Well, yeah, I guess you're right, I should ask, I'll never know until I try. And you should do the same with Kurama, forget your stupid policy and ask him out, he seems like a nice guy to me, even if he turns you down I'm sure he'll do his best not to hurt you."

"Okay, we're talking about your relationship situation right now not mine, so I'm gonna go find a book store and you're gonna go ask Cat out. I've got my cell if you guys need me so... yeah."

"Thanks, Katrina."

"Onee-chan."

"What?"

"Call me Onee-chan, no one's ever called me that and I think it would be fun. I've tried to get my younger sibs into the habit but it didn't catch on and you remind me of my little bro. You not only look like him but you're cute and stupid about girls like him too," Katrina teased.

"Alright, thanks for the advice, Onee-chan. Ya know, if it's not too weird I might just stick with calling you that. See ya later, Onee-chan!" Daiku called as he crossed the street to ask Catherine out.

Katrina sighed and got up off of the sidewalk; she wiped off her butt and headed off down the street to see if she could find that book store Kurama said he loved. At Genkai's temple Kuwabara was following Yukina around like a lost puppy and she was laughing and enjoying his company. Genkai was in the arcade kicking Yusuke's butt at some video game or another as Keiko walked in with tea for all of them. Kurama was at work and Hiei was patrolling the boarder keeping an eye out for humans accidentally straying across. When Katrina entered the book store a tiny bell tinkled over the door and she inhaled the scent of old books and dust then headed off to find a quiet, secluded spot to make a phone call. Her talk with Daiku reminded her of how much she really missed her family, she had no idea how much time had passed between the two worlds but it felt like she hadn't contacted them in years.

Back at the ice cream shop Daiku took a deep breath and walked over and sat down across from Catherine at one of the outdoor tables. "Hey, Daiku, where'd Kat go? Did she get lost crossing the street or something?"

"She said she was going to find a book store but that she's got her phone if we need to call her. Um... can I ask you something?" Catherine had be watching her ice cream and licking around when it started melting but the tone of Daiku's voice made her look up at him. He gulped and blushed a little, the sunlight reflected off of a window and shone around Catherine making her look like she was glowing. "Woul- well... I mean... Uh... Catherine would... would you like to go out with me sometime?" he gushed. Catherine sat there for a second her ice cream starting to drip down her hand. Daiku started to think that asking her was a bad idea and mentally kicked himself, he sounded like a moron, besides why would she want to go out with a kid like him when she liked Hiei?

"Yeah, sure. How about right now? Katrina's at the book store and we can call her and tell her that we're going on a date and to not wait up for us. What'd you have in mind?" Catherine said.

It was now Daiku's turn to be surprised but he quickly recovered, "Uh, well actually I hadn't thought that far ahead, I thought you'd say no. Um... a movie maybe or dinner or just a walk in the park?"

"Sure."

"Sure to which one?"

"All of them, let's see what's playing if there's anything interesting we can go see it and if there's time we can go to the park before the movie and then to dinner. After that we can head back to Yusuke's and there ya go we had a full day."

"Okay, let's go to the movies then, I guess," Daiku said a little thrown off at Catherine's blunt and sudden idea.

In the back of the book store there was a little room with book shelves along most of the walls and a window seat with nice soft cushions warmed from the sunlight streaming in. Katrina walked over and sat down leaning against the wall, she pulled out her cell and stared at it, _I should call Gensu and see if he can connect my call to my parents_, she thought instead she put the phone back in her pocket and pulled her legs up and rested her chin on her knees. She closed her eyes and relaxed in the warm sun trying not to cry because she felt she had no reason too. Yeah, she missed her family but she hadn't been gone that long and Gensu told them that they could go back home so it's not like she'd never see them again, but inside she felt like she did when she was little and spent the night with a friend for the first time: homesick.

"Oh, excuse me I didn't- hey, aren't you the girl from the park that caught my sister when she fell off the playground equipment?" someone asked. Katrina started a little at the sound of someone else in the room, she was sore and a little tired, she must have dozed off. Looking up she saw a handsome young man standing in front of her.

"You mean the little girl..."

"Karin."

"Yeah, Karin I remember, it's nice to see you again... uh, I'm sorry I'm terrible with names."  
"That's okay I was rude and didn't give you my name last time we met, I'm Andrew, and you are?"

"My name's Katirna, it's nice to meet you, Andrew, but how-"

"Karin's not really my little sister I just call her that I've been baby- sitting her for most of her life so she's like a sister to me," Andrew explained before Katrina could finish her question. "Mind if I sit down with you?"  
"Oh, no, that's fine, I was just thinking and I must have dozed off, it's really comfortable here."

Andrew sat next to Katrina, a little closer than she would have liked but she was against the wall on one side and she didn't feel like being rude and asking him if he would scoot over a little.

"What were you thinking about, you look like you might have been crying are you okay?"

"Oh, I didn't know I'd cried, um... well, I haven't been here in Japan for very long my friend and I only got here a few months ago but... and I know this is probably stupid but... I already feel kind of homesick. Funny really since when I was younger I couldn't wait to graduate and move out and now barely three months later I want to go ho- home," Katrina's voice broke and she felt tears trickling down her cheeks. A warm, soft hand brushed them away as Andrew whispered, "Hey, hey, it's okay, don't cry... Its fine to be homesick there's nothing wrong with that. You'll be okay, you said you came with your friend right, so you're not alone and it's not like you can never see your family again right?"

Katrina nodded and took a deep breath but she couldn't stop the tears, the sadness was overwhelming and she couldn't hold it in. Andrew pulled Katrina's legs over his lap and gently positioned her so that she was resting her head on his shoulder, "It's going to be okay, you're going to be okay, just let it out if you need to, it's alright to cry." Katrina almost wanted to laugh just a second ago Andrew was telling her not to cry; now he was saying it was alright too. She felt uncomfortable being held like a child by a stranger but he was so warm and comforting to her that she relaxed and let her guard down. He leaned forward and gently kissed her forehead like a big brother or father, then he kissed her eyes and the tip of her nose. Andrew's lips softly trailed off her nose and down along her cheek... then before Katrina realized what was happening he was kissing her lips. She tried to pull back but the wall was behind her and he was preventing her from moving, Katrina panicked as she felt his tongue part her lips and enter her mouth. Biting down hard on his tongue Katrina tasted blood and felt Andrew pull sharply back.

"What was-" Katrina didn't get to finish because Andrew suddenly had her pinned beneath him on the window seat his lips pressed hard against her and his hands trying to explore up her shirt.

Katrina wanted to scream, to punch him, kick him, something but her mind wasn't connecting with the rest of her body and she was helpless and terrified when Andrew was ripped off of her and she heard him shout, "What the H*^&!" Katrina sat up just as Andrew was pinned to a bookshelf by another young man; a young man with long red hair.

"If you ever come near Katrina-chan ever again, I will not hesitate to-"

"Kurama?" Katrina asked as she spit Andrew's blood out of her mouth.

Kurama turned around still pinning Andrew to the wall and his glare changed to a look of concern, "Katrina-chan, are you okay?"

"Now... now I am wha- look out!" Kurama turned and was punched in the face by Andrew, he dropped him and Andrew took a swing at Kurama again. But Kurama was faster and caught his blow this time and twisted Andrew's arm behind his back, "I suggest for your sake that you leave immediately and never come back," he said in a polite but angry voice. When he let Andrew go he fell to the floor but scrambled up and ran out of the store flicking Kurama and Katrina off. Once he was gone Kurama turned back to Katrina and inspected her from where he stood assessing the damage done to her. "I'm alright, Kurama, I bit him that's where the blood was from. What are you doing here, Uh! Thank you for doing that I mean, I- I just froze he caught me off guard and I... I don't know what happened." Kurama continued to stare at her and she started getting self- conscious and blush then he asked if she would mind if he sat down. She nodded and he came over and sat a respectable distance from her, she wanted to curl up in his arms and cry again but felt that after what had just happened and that she didn't want to upset Kurama it was best to stay where she was at. The he startled her, "Would you like... a... hug, Katrina-san?"

"You... you can call me chan or just Katrina or even Kat if you want to... and... yeah, I'm not usually into hugs but, I could really use one right now. Thanks," she said as she scooted closer to him and he tentatively wrapped an arm around her and gave her a gentle and quick hug.

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Nine

A couple of months later Genkai called Yusuke's place while Katrina was reading and Catherine was in the shower so Daiku answered. "Hello?"

"Who is this?" Genkai asked she hadn't met Daiku yet.

"This is Daiku, Catherine's boyfriend, who's this?"

"Ah, so you're the brat's boyfriend, where is she?"

"She's busy at the moment who are you?"

"This is Genkai, now get the vixen or the brat but give the phone to one of them I don't feel like talking to someone I don't know, about things that are none of their business."

"Vixen? Oh, hang on," Daiku put a hand over the phone and called, "Onee-chan, phone, it's Genkai!"

Katrina put her book down and got up slowly, stretching and rubbing her tired eyes as she made her way to the phone; she took it from Daiku and said hello.

"Katrina, get Catherine and head over here now, you two have had enough time off now it's time to train some more. *CLICK*" Genkai said what she'd wanted and hung up the phone. Katrina sighed and put the phone back on the receiver then knocked on the bathroom door, "Cat, Genkai wants us at her place fifteen minutes ago!"

"NOOO!" Katrina heard Catherine screech, "I don't wanna go back for more training I thought we were done!"

Katrina ignored Catherine's complaints and headed back to their room to make sure all her things were packed; Catherine barged in with soaking, dripping hair a couple minutes later. Daiku was right behind her and asked, "Who's Genkai and why does she want you back for training?"

"Genkai is Yusuke's old friend/trainer and she's a slave driver when it comes to training!" Catherine whined.

"Aw, c'mon she's not that bad, Cat, besides she probably wants us back so she can teach us how to change forms and remain in control of ourselves."

"If that's the case I wonder how she'll go about it. Hey, how long do ya think she's gonna keep us this time? If it's very long do you think she'll let Daiku come and train with us?"

"Neh, I doubt she'll let Daiku come, I can't imagine her wanting to put up with another student, she's already got her hands full with you and Yukina lives with her and Kuwabara's always visiting. Training wise... who knows, Genkai's unpredictable."

"You mean we're going to have to LD, Cat? That's not fair; I want to train too..." Daiku's voice trailed off at the look his girlfriend gave him.

"Trust me, you do not want to train with Genkai, Daiku, you should ask Yusuke to train you if you want to train so badly. And it wouldn't really be a long distance relationship for you guys, since Genkai is only a two hour train ride from here," Katrina said.

"Che, a two hour train ride and a mile and a half of nothing but stairs to get to her temple," Catherine chimed in. After a little more complaining and figuring out what she and Daiku would do Catherine packed her things and asked Katrina to dry her hair. Katrina sighed but warmed her hands and brushed them over Catherine's hair and when she was done Catherine looked like she had an afro. "Heh, oops, didn't expect that," Katrina giggled.

"What? What'd you- AH! Give me a brush now!" Catherine shouted, searching frantically through her bag for a brush.

"Aww, I like your hair better this way," Katrina teased.

"Shut up, we need to get going and you messing with my hair isn't going to get us out if here any faster."

Katrina and Daiku helped Catherine tame her hair and then the girls gathered their things and headed to the door; before they got there Daiku grabbed Catherine's wrist and spun her towards him into a kiss, a long kiss that turned into a lot of kisses.

"If you two are going to make out I think I'll just head off to the train station without you," Katrina said, rolling her eyes. She headed out the door and Catherine slowly pulled away from Daiku, "I'd better get going then," she said, "Keep in touch, visit every once in a while 'kay? Don't forget about your girlfriend."

"Tell Onee-chan I said bye." Catherine was at the door but stopped and turned to ask, "Why do you call her Onee-chan?"

"A couple months ago, you remember when we had our first date? I asked her for some advice and before we split up she told me to call her Onee-chan. She said I reminded her of her brother, why do you ask?"

"Just curious, hey maybe I should call her Onee-chan too, she is older and more mature than me as well, besides maybe it'll annoy her. Hey, have you noticed that she seems... a little more cautious when she has to go out by herself now? I've been concerned about that too, ever since we started dating she seems on edge more often than not, I wonder if it's because of us."

"I don't know, maybe you should talk to her about it you're her best friend after all."

"Yeah, you're right; bye, remember to visit and don't forget me!"

"Never in a million years, bye."

Catherine left Yusuke's apartment and found Katrina staring over the railing waiting for her, "Hey, I thought you'd be almost to the station by now, are you okay?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I'm fine I just didn't feel like riding the train by myself, that's all. Daiku hogs you all the time so I thought I'd wait for you," Katrina teased, but Catherine could see in her eyes that Katrina was hiding something, her relationship with Daiku might be part of the problem but she doubted that. Katrina was always supportive and encouraging of Daiku and Catherine's relationship and she spent plenty of time with her best friend. And Katrina was usually all about being able to take care of herself because she hated feeling helpless, but lately she seemed scared of the world, and Catherine remembered that the day she and Daiku had had their first date she'd seen Katrina and Kurama together but not in a relationship way, it was like he was comforting her after a traumatic experience. Catherine had asked Katrina about it but she said she didn't feel like talking about it, and Kurama seemed to come over more often and spend time with Katrina, which was great but Katrina always seemed depressed around everyone lately.

When Katrina and Catherine were on the train Catherine inquired about it, "Katrina, is everything okay? You seem to be really depressed lately even when Kurama comes over to hang out with you. And he's been coming over a lot lately, I think he likes you, has he asked you out yet?"

Katrina had been reading her book but glanced at Catherine and quickly turned back to her book, it was a very quick glance but Catherine could see tears forming in Katrina's eyes. "Katrina, what's wrong? Will you please tell me, we used to talk about everything and now you've really retreated into yourself and your books, I can't help you if you won't talk to me?"

"I- I'd really rather not talk about it here," Katrina whispered.

Catherine understood that whatever was bothering Katrina was serious so she kept her mouth shut but gave her friend a strong hug and rubbed her back for a bit. At one point Katrina fell asleep and leaned against Catherine, some people gave the girls weird looks and Catherine glared at them and they looked away.

Katrina was still asleep when they reached the stop the girls needed so Catherine woke her and they got off and headed for Genkai's place. Catherine wanted to get Katrina to talk but she could see she wasn't ready so she waited until they were on the stairs leading to Genkai's before she asked again.

"Alright, Kat, it's time to talk. What's been bothering you so much lately?"

Katrina took a deep stuttering breath and said, "Okay, you have to promise not to tell anyone about this, Kurama is the only one who knows what happened and I don't want the other's to worry about me."

"I promise, we're best friends remember, I never tell anyone what we say to each other unless it's okay with you," Catherine replied and gave Katrina another gentle hug.

Katrina took another deep breath and then told Catherine everything that happened two months before after she'd run across the street to the ice cream shop. A few times Katrina had to stop and take a breath or wipe away tears and blow her nose but when she was finished telling her story she sighed with relief and smiled the first genuine smile in over two months.

"Wow, that's horrible, I'm so glad that Kurama was able to stop that guy before he did any more to you; Kat, I- I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you, if you'd come with us that wouldn't have happened to you. I wish I'd taken more notice sooner and helped you, I'm so sorry!" Catherine said giving her bffl a giant rib crushing hug refusing to let go.

"ACH! Cat, I... can't... breathe!" Katrina gasped.

"Don't worry we'll find this guy and I'll take care of him for you, he'll never touch another woman like that again!" Catherine vowed.

"Cat, don't, I was scared of him but thanks to you and Kurama; I think I feel a whole lot safer and better. No one's going to get to me like that again; but beating the guy up won't do any good. Now, we'd better get to Genkai's sometime today or she's going to make us train through the night," Katrina finished with a smile as she took off running up the steps.

"Heh, hey, wait up! You said Kurama's been helping you and that he saved you and gave you a hug, so does this mean you two are an official couple now?"

"You never know!" Katrina called back.

"C'mon, Onee-chan, if you two aren't a couple yet then I'm going to make you be a couple it's obvious that you two are crazy about each other so just admit it and give everybody what they've been waiting for. We can all see it; you guys are perfect for each other!"

Katrina stopped and Catherine nearly ran her over, "Wh-" Catherine cut herself off when she saw Kurama walking down the steps a little surprised to see them. "Hey, Kurama! So are you and Kat an official couple or what she won't tell me," Catherine called.

When Kurama was standing just a couple of stairs above them he answered Catherine's question, "Well, I don't know that you would call us a couple, we have been spending more time together but I was..." he stopped and looked at Katrina with a question in his eyes, _Have you told her about what happened? Is it okay for me to bring it up? _Katrina nodded and Kurama went on, "I was helping her through a rough time, we weren't really dating but..." Kurama turned to Katrina again and spoke directly to her, "If you want us to be a couple then I am perfectly fine with that, I've grown to like you more than any girl I've meet in a long time. Katrina, would you be my girlfriend?"

Katrina's entire face turned a deep red and Catherine tried to contain a laugh but couldn't, "C'mon, Onee-chan, you've liked him since you met him and you said that you wanted him to ask you so just say yes!"

Katrina looked down and took a deep breath, "Yeah, yes, I would be honored," she replied. Catherine burst out laughing so hard she nearly fell backwards, "You two are definitely perfect for each other! You're both so formal in your questions and answers! HAHAHAHAHAH!"

Kurama and Katrina cracked up too as Katrina grabbed Catherine's shoulder to keep her from falling; when the laughing had settled Catherine said, "Whelp, I guess I'll leave you two lovebirds- I mean kitsunes- alone, here give me your bag, Onee-chan and I'll let Genkai know you're coming." Katrina blushed again but handed her bag to Catherine and walked up the steps to stand in front of Kurama. As Catherine walked past them Kurama pulled Katrina into a kiss and she blushed so hard her face burned _my first kiss_, she thought, _well, my first official kiss_.

"I'd better let you go so Genkai doesn't kill us; I'll visit as much as I can. Goodbye... Katrina," Kurama said, pulling out of the kiss.

"Bye, if anyone asks their curiosity can now be satisfied," Katrina smiled as she waved goodbye to her boyfriend.

Genkai wasn't happy to be kept waiting but she quickly explained what the girls had already guessed: they were going to train in their demon forms. "There isn't much that I can do to help you two with this but you need to know how to change form at will. When you have accomplished that your training will be over. . . Unless there's something else I need to teach you later." And with that Genkai left the girls to figure out how to change form on their own. "Well, I'm going to try and meditate in the woods, maybe the shadow realm will help you, Cat," Katrina said, as she walked towards the tree line, "Say hi to Yukina for me if you see her!" she finished as she disappeared. Cat heaved a sarcastic sigh and opened a portal into the shadow realm and stepped through it into total darkness.

After what felt like hours of nothing but floating in the dark with nothing happening, Catherine yawned and decided to check on Katrina's progress. She located Katrina's shadow and floated through it; she found Katrina still meditating in a tree but she was obviously having better luck than Catherine. Katrina had kitsune ears and a tail and her outfit and hair had changed too: her hair was in a single, long, braid down her back; she was wearing baggy cameo pants and a black tank top. Then Katrina slowly opened her eyes and Catherine saw that they were a deep scarlet. "Hey, Cat, how long have you been hiding in my shadow?" she asked.

"Not long I only just popped up to check on your progress, how long have you been out here? You look like you accomplished what Genkai expects of you."

"Hmm?" Katrina looked down at herself, "Oh, I guess I did, well it looks like you did too, your eyes are completely black and have shadows streaming out the sides of them, it's kinda creepy, and your outfits changed too."

"It has? Wait. My eyes are shadows now? COOL!" Catherine looked down at herself and saw that she was wearing black form fitting jeans and a black midriff top; her hair was up in a ponytail and her nails looked like they'd grown and were dipped in black poison.

While she was taking in her own appearance Katrina was doing the same thing, she felt her ears and tail and nearly fell out of the tree in excitement. "We look so cool!" the girls said in unison.

"I wonder if Genkai will make us stay since we managed to change or if she wants us to actually train in these forms." Catherine said. Katrina jumped out of the tree and Catherine offered her a ride through the shadow realm back to Genkai's, "I love ya like a sister, Cat, but there is absolutely no way I'm going into that place again."

"Suit yourself, it's getting dark and we're a long way from Genkai's," Catherine shrugged her shoulders as she sank into Katrina's shadow.

"What better way to test out my senses than in the dark?" Katrina replied, but Catherine was already gone.

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Ten

Catherine was having a delightful dream about Hiei skipping through a field of flowers lighting matches and set the flowers on fire with a giant goofy smile on his face*; when she was rudely awoken by a bucket of cold water being dumped on her. "HRAAAAAAAHHHHH! WHAT THE H-!" she screamed. Katrina dropped the bucket and ran out of the room laughing as Catherine jumped up and dashed after her. Then she slipped into the shadows and popped out of the floor two feet in front of Katrina; Katrina skidded and turned a corner heading out side. Catherine slipped into the shadows again and came up grabbing Katrina's ankle's effectively tripping her. She fell flat on her face and shouted a muffled "OW!" into the floor because she'd bruised her nose, rolling over she laughed at her angry friend. "I- couldn't hel- help it! Genkai told me to do it and who am I to argue with Sensei?"

"Coward..." Catherine grumbled, and started laughing as well.  
"Here I'll dry you off if you'd like?" Katrina asked.

"Much appreciated, Kat. So let me guess, Genkai's got more training for us?"

"Actually no, she said the gang's coming over and she wants us to make lunch for everyone. Plus there's supposed to be some new guests she wants us to meet. She say's they're old friends of the gang's and that they don't know they're coming so we need to keep quiet about it."

Catherine groaned, "Fine, I'll cook but you have to clean."

"Deal! I hate cooking."

After Catherine was dry and dressed she and Katrina headed to the kitchen to get started they knew they were going to be making a big meal and they had a lot of work to do. Catherine told Katrina what pots and pans to get out while she found the ingredients that she'd need and once everything was set up she started making lunch. Since there wasn't anything else for Katrina to do until after the meal she grabbed a book and went up to the roof.

Eventually Catherine popped out of Katrina's shadow and said that everyone was showing up so it was almost time for lunch and Genkai told them to set the really long table. Katrina put her book in her back pocket and jumped down near the kitchen; inside Yukina and Catherine were already setting up and she joined them. Keiko and Botan came in a few minutes later and asked if the girls would like help and before they knew it the table was set and everyone was seated waiting to dig in. Keiko sat next to Yusuke and Kuwabara and Yukina sat next to each other the same went for Daiku and Catherine and Botan sat on one side of Katrina while Kurama sat on the other. Genkai came in and announced that the surprise guests had arrived and in came a little boy with stars under his eyes, a huge guy with a purple mow hawk, a red haired guy with a horn in the middle of his head, and a young man with silver hair and green bangs that looked almost plastic. Yusuke and Kuwabara jumped up and shouted a mix of names while Kurama smiled and walked over to say hello to everyone as well.

"Gin, it's great to see you again! Chu, you up for a fight after lunch? Hey, Rinku try not to kill Kuwabara; Toya it's been forever since we saw you, how has everyone been?" Yusuke asked. The reunion went on for a few more minutes before Catherine jumped up and shouted, "Hey, are you forgetting something? I slaved over an evil stove for hours to bring you men this feast and you're all totally disregarding it. I thought men followed their stomachs, you can have your lovey reunion AFTER we eat!"

Jin started laughing so hard he nearly puked, when he'd finally caught his breathe he replied, "Well, she's got a big mouth and a wit to go with it are you sure you ain't related to Yusuke?"

Katrina started laughing so hard she fell out of her seat as Catherine jumped up to shout, "How dare you compare me to that oaf! Everyone knows I'm a million times smarter than him, there is absolutely NO WAY we could be related to each other!" Botan leaned over and helped Katrina back up only for her to fall again as Jin appeared floating in her face. "Hello, there, and who might you be? Another red head to add to the group? I hope that your smart 'cause everyone knows that if your friend there's as dumb as Yusuke then Kurama and Hiei need someone on their side to counter the stupidity." Jin grinned from ear to ear, "By the way where is Hiei anyway?"

"I don't think Cat would be happy to be lumped in with Kuwabara and Yusuke. My name's Katrina by the way. And I have no clue where Hiei is, we haven't really seen him since Cat glomped him and started playing with his hair," Katrina replied still giggling and enjoying Jin's Irish accent.

Someone cleared their throat and Jin turned to see Kurama, "Would you please back away from my girlfriend so that she can get up, Jin?" Jin blinked startled by what Kurama had said but backed away.

"Ah, so the lovely little lady's already taken, that's too bad. 'Course I'm glad that you finally found yourself a girl, Kurama, how long have you been together?"

Kurama helped Katrina up and she was quickly glomped by an ecstatic Botan who shouted, "KATRINA I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU!" Startled by Botan's outburst everyone went quiet and stared at her and the girl being crushed in her arms. "What do you mean, Botan?" Keiko asked.

"Katrina and Kurama are boyfriend and girlfriend now!"

"... That's not even the best part," Catherine said with an evil gleam in her eye. "You guys should have seen the-" Katrina jerked free of Botan's death glomp and clamped her hand over Catherine's mouth. "If you know what's good for you, you'd better lose that thought quick and never bring it up again," Katrina whispered menacingly in Catherine's ear. Yukina tilted her head in an adorable manner and said, "Should have seen what, Catherine-Chan?"

Catherine pulled Katrina's hand off of her mouth and finished, "way he asked her and she responded. It was priceless, you'd all be laughing so hard; man, I wish Hiei was here to telepathically show you guys cause just telling you isn't nearly as funny. But I can't tell you or Kat'll kill me."

"Aw, c'mon, Kat, lighten up and let her tell us. A funny story on Kurama's expense would be so worth it," Yusuke begged. Katrina went red in the face and Catherine took that as the okay to tell what happened. "Okay, yesterday Kat and I were heading up here to Genkai's when we ran into Kurama on the stairs. I started teasing him about how he and Katrina would make a great couple and wondering if he'd ever ask her to be his girlfriend when he said... and I quote," Catherine tried imitating the way Kurama had talked, "'If you want us to be a couple then I am perfectly fine with that, I've grown to like you more than any girl I've meet in a long time. Katrina, would you be my girlfriend?' and then Katrina said, 'Yeah, yes, I would be honored'" Katrina was red in the face as she glared at Catherine who just burst out laughing with Yusuke and most everyone else.

"Man, Kurama, I didn' know your speech habits were contagious!" Yusuke gasped as he laughed.

Botan scooped up Yukina, Keiko, and Catherine and started whispering a plan she'd just come up with, after lunch they had a surprise for Katrina. Catherine grinned when Katrina looked at her, "What are you girls planning?" she asked.

"It's nothing, Katrina-Chan, don't worry about it," Keiko replied as she headed to the table to eat.

Daiku grabbed Catherine's wrist and asked her if they were ever going to dig into the meal she'd prepared or if they were waiting for it to rot. Catherine gave him a quick kiss and they sat down and started eating; eventually everyone else joined them and lunch finally officially commenced.

As soon as lunch was over the girls scooped up Katrina and headed for the train station and the boys went outside to fight. Katrina immediately knew what they had planned for her and started fighting to get free and run for her life. "Oh, calm down, Katrina-Chan, we're not going to hurt you just get you some new clothes and maybe a makeover as well," Botan said.

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfiction

Chapter Eleven

After much protesting and threats, the girls managed to get Katrina into a clothing store and trying things on for them. They ran into Shuzure while waiting for Katrina to come out of the dressing room and invited her to join in tormenting their friend. "Kat, if you don't come out here and show us how that dress looks on you I will be forced to come in there and drag you out!" Catherine called.

"Please don't make me come out, I look like a total idiot in this thing," Katrina whined.

"You have until the count of three and then I'm dragging your stuborn a-"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming out..." The door opened slowly and Katrina steped out hiding her face in her hair. The girls stood stunned for a minute then Keiko said, "Katrina-Chan, you are buying that dress and we will find an occasion suitible for it."

The dress was floor length, form-fitting, dark green, with only one sleeve on the left shoulder, the sleeve was a thin gauzy material that flowed down to Katrina's wrist and hung down a couple of inches. "You look beautiful, Katrina-Chan, I think you should dress up more often, now all we have to do are get you some shoes and fix your hair and you'll be so stunning that everyone will stop and stare in amazement," Botan said.

"Dang, Kat, I didn't know you had such a nice figure, you're always hiding it with loose clothing that just barely captures it," Catherine said.

"Can I change out of this now?" Katrina asked, "Hey, Shuzure, when did you get here?"  
"Just a few minutes ago, so why are you shopping, I thought you hated it?"

"I-"

"She and Kurama are dating now and we wanted to update her wardrobe so she'd actually have nice things to wear," Botan interupted. Shuzure's eyes widened a little before she smilled and replied, "Well good for you, Kiddo, I knew you liked him. It was just a matter of time."

The girls dragged Katrina through a couple hours of shopping before she managed to slip away and head to the train station back to Genkai's. Everything they had her buy was back with them so she walked slowly enjoying the peace and the scenery; she passed a park on her way and smiled at the little kids playing.

"Tag, you're it!"

"Nuuh I said no tag-backs!"

"You can't do that when there are only five people playing..."

Katrina continued on smiling to herself as she remembered playing all sorts of fun games with her friends when she was little, hide and seek was her favorite because no one ever found her. Of course it was a little annoying when the seeker had found everyone and forgot about her. Frisbee was fun too, except for the one time a friend of hers threw the frisbee when she wasn't looking and knocked her tooth out, it didn't grow back until almost two years later.*

Reaching the train station Katrina waited and ended up having to stand for half an hour because all the seats were taken, when a seat finally opened up she let a lady with a todler have it instead. The lady smilled a thank you at her while she tried to settle her child down. Katrina sang a silly song to the crying child and he perked up immediately and started laughing; she sang, "My mamma, she gave me a penny, she told me to buy a henny... I did not buy a henny, instead I bought bubble gum... bazooka-zooka bubble gum. My momma she gave me a nickle she told me to buy a pickle... I did not buy a pickle, instead I bought bubble gum... bazooka-zooka bubble gum. My mamma, she gave me a dime, she told me to buy a lime... I did not buy a lime, instead I bought bubble gum... bazooka-zooka bubble gum. My mamma she gave me a quarter, she told me to buy some boarder... I did not buy some boarder, instead I bought bubble gum... bazooka-zooka bubble gum. My mamma, she gave me a dollar, she told me to buy a collar... I did not buy a collar, instead I bought some bubble gum... bazooka-zooka bubble gum. My mamma she gave me a ten, she told me to buy a pen... I did not buy a pen, instead I bought some bubble gum... bazooka-zooka bubble gum. My mamma, she gave me a five, she told me to stay alive... I did not stay alive, instead I CHOKED on bubble gum... bazooka-zooka bubble gum!" The toddler smilled and laughed and laughed and his mom smilled a small smile that didn't reach her eyes. _I guess she didn't find the song that funny_, Katrina thought, _sorry ma'am, I didn't mean to offend you, just trying to help. _

The woman got off at the next stop and her son said, "Bye-bye, funny lady!" and waved and grinned at Katrina; she smiled and waved back as the doors closed and the train headed off again. _I wonder if anybody's noticed I'm gone yet? I should be almost to Genkai's by now. _Katrina continued to stand even though there was pleanty of room to sit as the train moved on heading to the stop she needed; she started to doze off when the train came to a screeching stop and the doors opened and she got off.

Catherine looked around and asked, "Has anyone seen Kat?" All conversation stopped and the girls looked around, finally noticing that their friend wasn't with them.

"Maybe she went to the bathroom?" Keiko said.

"No, we left the clothing store almost an hour ago and got ice cream and it's been... what two hours now. Maybe she's at Genkai's, she probably left while we were procupied. Nothing to worry about when we get back we can make her do chores for making us lug around her stuff."

"I've got a better idea, why don't we make her do a fasion show for the boys? That's a suitible punishment, don't you think, Cat?" Shuzure said.

Catherine's face broke out in a huge grin and she whole heartedly agreed with Shuzure's plan, Yukina objected a little saying that it was mean of them but Keiko and Botan agreed as well and Catherine tried to convice Yukina to agree as well.

"Let's head back so we can make her do it after dinner," Keiko said.

"Keiko, I didn't know you could be cruel, I'd expect that from Botan-"

"Hey!" Botan protested.

"Hey, if the shoe fits wear it," Catherine finished.

Once the girls got off the train they were coming up with all sorts of ways to get Katerine back for ditching them and how to get the fashion show to work. They decided to save the green dress for last since they agreed it was the most stunning.

When Katrina got back to Genkai's she slipped into the kitchen, turned on her mp3 and started quietly singing along with the songs as she did the dishes. She was still working on them and singing a little louder when the guys came in from fighting, they all headed strait to the kitchen for drinks and Jin scooped Katrina up and she nearly broke his nose when she punched him. He dropped her and grabbed his nose, she landed on her butt with a hard thump and pulled out her ear buds. The guys were laughing and Katrina walked over to the freezer and pulled out some ice, then wraped it up in a washcloth and handed it to Jin. "Well, that's what you deserve for sneeking up on a girl like that," she said trying to hold back a smile.

"Your girl puches harder than Yusuke, Kurama, watch out, you don't want to get on her bad side," Jin said in a muffled voice.

Catherine and the rest of the girls walked in then and saw Jin on the floor with a washcloth and bloody nose, the guys laughing and Katrina doing dishes with her earbuds back in as if nothing happened. "What happened here?" Shuzure asked after the guys managed to settle a little.

"Jin snuck up on Katrina and she broke his nose," Kuwabara said and started to laugh again which started eveyone laughing.

"I knew Kat had a good punch but I didn't realize it was that strong now. Man, I'd better make sure not to warrent her fist, I goofed with her once when we were tweleve and she puched me so hard my arm when numb,* but that's nothing compared to now since she had training," Catherine said. Yusuke's stomach rumbled and Chu said, "Hey, are we going to get some dinner soon? And pleanty to drink as well!"

"Alright, Chu, we will make dinner but you guys gotta get out of the kitchen so we can make it, if you want to get drunk talk it over with Genkai first. This is her home after all," Keiko said shooing the boys out.

As the girls fixed dinner the whispered about the fashion show afterward, even though Katrina was listening to her music, on the roof while she read they didn't want to risk spoiling it. Katrina came in when the meal was ready and helped set the table, Yusuke came into the kitchen for a minute to make a joke about the women's role of the house and Keiko threatened to slap him senseless so that he'd miss the meal and he quickly dissapeared. Katrina went back to Genkai's game room to announce that dinner was ready and was nearly trampled as Rinku, Kuwabara, Chu, Yusuke, and Daiku ran to get to the food first. Katrina rolled her eyes and turned to follow Toya and Kurama to the dinning room. Kurama turned and took Katrina's hand, "how was your day out with the girls?" he asked as he bent and gave her a quick kiss.

"Sheer, torture, and I just know that they've cooked up some horrid plan of revenge for me ditching them." Kurama chuckled and brushed Katrina's hair behind her ear, she scowled a little and giggled, "I don't like my hair behind my ears unless I'm working or eating."

"I'm sorry, I just couldn't help it, you look nice with your hair back." Kurama was about to kiss her again when Genkai walked by and said, "Hurry up love birds before the meal's gone and you don't get to eat."

When the meal was over and cleared away, Catherine told everyone to head to the living room for a surprise, then she grabbed Katrina's wrist and dragged her to her room. "For ditching us and making me carry your stuff, your punishment is a fashion show of all the clothes that you bought, you will do this you're not getting out of it." Katrina ran for the window only to be stopped by Hiei, she skidded to a stop and fell. "What are you doing here?" she asked. He replied with his typical, 'Hn' and continued to block Katrina's escape. "I asked him to come, I thought it would be great for everyone to get to see him again, since he's hardly ever around," Catherine elaborated for Hiei.

"Oh, so you... How did you convince him to come, I thought he hated you?" Catherine grinned and wagged her finger, "This is about your punishment, now here," Catherine tossed a bag at Katrina, "change into this and come out into the living room and show it off."

Hiei went out the window and headed to the living room to be assulted by the love and excitment of the Baka crew waiting there. Katrina tried to fight some more but it only ended with the threat of more punishment so she finally did as she was told. Katrina changed quite a lot and had a perminent blush on her face from all the attention and embarassment by the time she changed into her final outfit, the green dress. "Gah! Cat, do I really have to go out there again, and in this? Please don't make me, I'm tired and still have the dinner dishes to wash," Katrina whined.

"Yes, you have to, it's the last one and then your done and you can do the dishes or go to bed or whatevery it is you feel like doing."

Katrina wanted to put up more of a fight, but she was too tired so she changed into the dress and was about to head to the living room when Catherine stoped her, "change into your demon form, you'll look georgous and everyone will be so stunned. It'll be the perfect end to the show."

Yusuke and Chu were arguing over who won their last fight while the girls were giddy with the excitement of knowing what was going to happen next and wondering how Kurama and the other's would react when Catherine came out and said, "Okay, I know you're probably all tired of seeing Kat hide behind her hair and blush and show off everyday clothing. Well now, you'll be glad to hear that it's the end, this is the last outfit she has to show you. Now, you should prepare yourselves, becacuse this is the best one and she's got a surprise for eveyone. So, with out further ado, here's Kat..." Catherine took a slight bow and moved so that Katrina could walk into the room. . .

The silence was so thick you could cut it with a katana, it was as if the air had been sucked out of the room in the collective gasp everyone took. Katrina walked out and stood in the middle of the living room staring at the wall behind everyone as they took in her standing in the green dress with her hair braided back neatly and her fox ears and tail twitching nervously.

"Wow," Rinku managed to break the silence.

"You look georgous, Katrina," Kurama said as he got up to hug her. She was blushing so badly she could feel her face burning. There were more comments about how beautiful she looked and complimenting Catherine on getting Katrina into her demon form to add to the beauty.

It took a few more minutes of chatter before everyone started to settle down and realize how tired they were, Katrina yawned and leaned on Kurama and smiled. Daiku turned on some music, that no one could figure out where it came from, and swooped Catherine into a dance. Kuwabara asked Yukina if she would dance with him and everyone soon everyone was dancing except for Katrina and Kurama.

"Would you like to dance?" Kurama whispered in her ear; she gently shook her head and yawned. Kurama scooped her into his arms and carried her to her room. Gently he laid her on her bed and took her shoes off, then pulled the blaket out from under her and over her, before he left the room he kissed her on the forehead and closed the door behind him. She smiled in the dark and drifted off to sleep ignoring the noise down the hall.

Author's Note: *true stories... from now on (to make it easier on me) if there's an * it means true story, something that really happened to me and my friend. Unless I post otherwise. And the 'dream' about Hiei in the last chapter was a crazy idea my friend cooked up as well, we were laughing so hard and I teased that if Hiei were real then he'd kill her because of that. Thank you for reading. If you like it or have anyting you feel like saying please let me know, I love chatting with new people. And I want to know what you think of my story. ^_^


	12. Chapter 12

Paper Voice

Chapter Twelve

A YYH Fancfic

Kurama went back to the living room and joined Hiei holding up the wall. "So, how did Catherine-Chan convince you to come tonight?" he teased.

"She did not have any part in my coming, I choose to come on my own, I didn't even know those baka's were still here. It's been almost a year since they came, aren't they going to leave anytime soon?"

"I'll have you know that one of those 'baka's' is my girlfriend, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't make fun of her. Besides, they are adults who can live how they choose, and so long as Genkai allows it they live here," Kurama ended the conversation slightly annoyed as he walked off to chat with more jovial company, Botan.

Kuwabara was sitting on the couch with Yukina begging her to let him take her on a date, she was trying her hardest to resist him because she felt it would be rude to leave Genkai and Pooh on there own the next day.

"Kazuma, I would love to go on a date with you tomorrow, but what if Genkai-"

"Genkai, is right here, and I can handle a day with out your help, If you want to go out with Kuwabaka tomorrow then you are welcome to do so. In fact take, Catherine and her boyfriend with you, get them out of my hair so I can have some peace!"

"Please, Yukina!" Kuwabara begged, oblivious to Genkai's insult. Yukina glanced back and forth between Kazuma and Genkai and caught Hiei glaring at Kazuma. "Well, okay, if you're sure you won't mind, Genkai-Sempai?"

"I'm sure, and don't forget Catherine!"

Catherine was still dancing with Daiku lost in the music and exahustion, Chu walked over, more or less managing to trip over everything and anything he could. "Hey... Hic... Dai-Buh! Daiku, how old are you? You drink?" Daiku threw Chu a bewildered glance and saw that he was drunker than a skunk* and didn't really seem aware of his surroundings so he answered and tried to move away from the fowl breath being burped into his face. "You're only... Fif- Hi-ic... teen! Sssad... you-Gurg- 've got a long wait ahead of you till you can- whoah!" *THUMP!* Chu was cut off as he fell on his butt nearly crushing Rinku. Catherine was slap-happy and burst out laughing at the sight.

"I think it's time for bed, Cat," Daiku said as he tried to keep from being knocked over by Catherine.

Rinku woke up the next morning with a splitting headache, "Ugh… what happened last night?" He tried to sit up only to realize he was pinned down by Chu's unconscious weight."Get off me you big lug," he shouted as he shoved Chu. Catherine came in and offered to help him if he helped her in return, he agreed and as soon as he was free Cat whispered," Find a big bucket and fill it with as much icy water as you can and throw it on Kat."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"You promised to help me and this is how your gonna do it or I'll trap you under Chu's butt."

"Going, finding a bucket!" Rinku shouted as he ran off.

Daiku walked in and took Catherine's hand, "What was that about?"

"Oh, just a little revenge..." Catherine chuckled. Daiku sighed and headed out of Genkai's to meet up with Yukina and Kuwabara for their double date.

"Hey, Toya, can you cool this water down a lot more for me?" Rinku asked as he carefully held the bucket of water up to Toya.

"Why would you want me to do that?"

"You'll see, just do it." Toya sighed and drastically decreased the water's temperature then went back to trying to figure out how to beat Yusuke at a videogame. Rinku carefully carried the bucket to Katrina's room and listened to make sure she was asleep, when he was sure he set the bucket down and slowly opened the door. She was curled up on her bed in pajamma's because she'd woken up earlier that morning and changed, Rinku suppressed a laugh and dumped the entire bucket on top of her. Katrina woke up, screamed and dived out of bed nearly catching Rinku who'd dropped the bucket and ran. "RINKU YOU LITTLE MONSTER! GET BACK HERE SO I CAN STRANGLE YOU!"

Yusuke and Toya paused their game and ran onto the veranda to see Katrina chasing Rinku around, her eyes were pissed and she was steaming as she dried herself off, she was in her demon form to top it all off and poor Rinku was just barely avoidiing her. "I'll string you up with your lousy yo-yo's and burn you to a crisp you little demon!" Yusuke collapsed on the floor laughing as other's showed up to watch the spectacle. "Why just me? Cat told me to do it and Toya cooled the water for me, they're just as guilty as me!"

"I'll deal with Cat later and as for Toya, he's innocent because he had no idea what you were planning!" Toya looked puzzled then started to laugh a little. Kurama sighed but stayed out of it because he could tell Katrina wasn't really pissed anymore, she was just messing with Rinku to teach him a lesson. Genkai sighed too and laughed a little, "that's what he gets for messing with Katrina." Rinku tripped giving Katrina the opportunity she needed to catch him, she snitched his yo-yo's and tied him to one of the beams supporting the roof then walked off satisfied with her work. Rinku shouted for help but everyone just walked off for lunch, eventually Chu woke up nursing a severe hang-over and heard Rinku's shouting. Slowly he got up and walked onto the veranda to find Rinku strung up and losing his voice from shouting, Chu burst out laughing and lost his balance landing on the ground on the ground. "Chu, get me down," Rinku begged; but Chu just continued laughing until his headache stopped him, when he'd calmed down enough he asked, "So how'd you get yerself tied up with your own weapons?"

"I listened to Catherine..." he mumbled.

"HAHAHAHAH! So you tried to do what to who?"

"I threw a bucket of cold water on Katrina while she was sleeping and she tied me up. Now untie me, I've been up here since breakfast."

"You know that if I try your poor toys are gunna get all torn up and ruined."

"Then go inside and get someone else out here to untie me!"

Chu slowly picked himself up and headed inside to find someone to untie Rinku... no one came. Rinku screamed until his voice gave out and then Catherine finally came home and untied him.

Earlier that day before all the crazyness with Rinku, Catherine and Daiku were on a double date with Yukina and Kuwabara. Kuwabara said that the should go to the movies and then have lunch and Daiku and the girls agreed, at the theatre Kuwabara pulled out his wallet to pay for everyone's tickets when he found he only had enough for one ticket, so Daiku ended up paying for the tickets and lunch. After the movie Yukina was crying, because it was a sad film, and Catherine was trying not to laugh, "That was probably one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen," she complained to Daiku in a whisper. "I'd have to agree, but you can't blame me, Kuwabara picked it," Daiku whispered back.

"So where do you want to go for lunch, Yukina?" Kuwabara asked trying to cheer he up.

"Uh, I think I saw a nice place to eat just down the block from here," she said, "lets check it out."

"I hope they serve ice cream!" Catherine shouted. Yukina laughed and Kuwabara took her hand and they headed in the direction Yukina pointed.

Lunch ended with Kuwabara accidentally shoving his chair into a waitress that was walking behind him carrying a try of dishes. There was a loud crash and he spun around and appologized profusely and everyone helped clean the mess, Kuwabara offered to work there in return for the damage since he had no money but Daiku payed for it. They went to the trainstation after that and Yukina tried to make Kuwabara feel better about their date. "It's okay,Kazuma, I had a wonderful time today, I hope we can go out again sometime." That brightened him up and he began making plans for a million more dates. Catherine smiled and the sillyness and grabbed Daiku's hand, "C'mon, lets leave them alone and find somewhere to sit on the train, I really enjoyed today too." Daiku smiled and kissed Catherine before they got on the train and went back to Genkai's.

Catherine was the first back to Genkai's where she found Rinku still tied up, she laughed and asked him what happened, he told her and she laughed harder as she tried to untie him. "You'd better be careful because Katrina said she was gunna get back at you too," he warned her. She shrugged and went inside to find Katrina sitting on the floor in her room, her cell on the floor and Gensu's voice calling her. "Kat, are you okay?" she asked dropping to the floor and scooping her best friend into a hug. Katrina blinked and gently pulled out of Catherine's arms.

"My mom... called," she mummbled, a look of shock on her face. Gensu's voice shouted for her again and Catherine said she'd call back later and then hung up the phone.

"Kat, what did your mom say? Is everything okay?"

"My... my papaw's... d-dead*," she sighed and started to sob. Catherine scooped her up like a little girl and squeezed her until Kurama came in to tell them dinner was ready. He dropped to the floor with them and asked what was wrong, Catherine told him and he joined in the hug. When Katrina had calmed down some she tried to pull out of the hug again but Kurama and Catherine wouldn't let her go. "Guys, I need to blown my nose," she said, that was what she always said when she wanted out of a hug after she'd cried, though she really did need to blow her nose. They let her go and Kurama got her some tissues, "do you want to go home?" he asked gently as she blew her nose.

"What? I can't hear you when I'm blowing my nose," she said.

"Do you want to go home?" Kurama repeated.

Katrina blinked, sighed, blew her nose again, and then said, "yes..." Kurama and Catherine stayed with Katrina as she blew her nose and smilled at them, "I'm okay for now, my emotions are weird like that, they come in waves and I never know when they're going to hit. You guys go eat dinner, I need to make some phone calls," she shooed them out of her room with a sad smile and closed the door.

"Is she going to be okay?" Kurama asked, turning to Catherine.

"Yeah, she just needs a little time to herself, she talk to us when she's ready, for now lets not say anything to anyone, she'll tell them when she's ready. Two things she really hates are tons of unwanted attention and worrying or disapointing people, so we should just go eat dinner and help her when she needs it."

Nobody really noticed that Katrina wasn't at dinner because they'd all spread out and ate in different rooms; after supper Katrina came out and got herself some food and talked to Kurama and Catherine about the phone calls and what she planned on doing. Katrina was going to go home for a bit to be with her family and attend the funeral, Catherine wanted to go with her, but Katrina said that Gensu said she should probably stay. Kurama said he was going to go with her regaurdless of what she said, he wasn't taking no for an answer, she was his girlfriend and he wanted to be there for her. Reluctantly she agreed and they made plans for going back the next day. Kurama called his family and told them what had happened and that he was going to go to America with Katrina to be there for her. His family talked to Katrina and told her that if she need anything she could always go to them if she came back. Katrina thanked them and promised that she'd come back when things were settled, then she called Gensu to find out about the portal and if it was possible for Kurama to go and come back, it was. Finally she called her family agian and let them know she was coming home and Kurama was coming with her. They knew him through phone calls and were happy to hear that he was kind enough to be there.

That night Katrina and Kurama packed their things and left early the next day, they left Catherine in charge of telling everyone what was going on becuase Katrina really didn't want to. Kurama thought she should tell them but understood she had enough to deal with, and Catherine was perfectly fine with it, she said goodbye and went to tell everyone a couple hours after they were gone like Katrina had asked.

At the portal Katrina took a deep breath took Kurama's hand and they stepped through together arriving in Gensu's wearhouse.

Author's Note: first *drunker than a skunk; I couldn't help it, I just had to use that, I thought it was so funny and doesn't get usef often

second *my papaw's dead; that actually happened to me this year, March 13th, 2011 a Sunday morning and my emotions do come in waves. But I'm happy to know that my Papaw's in Heaven and no longer suffering.


	13. Chapter 13

Paper Voice

Chapter Thirteen

A YYH Fanfic

Author's Note: Okay, sorry it's taken so long for me to update, I was dry for ideas... it's like as soon as I manage to finish a chapter I have absolutely no idea what to do for the next chapter! Warning; if this chapter sucks I'm very sorry I don't really have an idea for it I just really wanted to make a new chapter and went with whatever came to mind. V_V

After Catherine told everyone what had happend with Katrina she asked Daiku if he'd like to go for a walk with her, she had kind of wanted to go home with Katrina but she also wanted to stay because she was having such a great time with everyone.

"Maybe I can introduce you to some of my friends if I can remember where they live..." Catherine said, as they headed into the forest surrounding Genkai's.

"Who do you know that lives in the forest?" Daiku replied.

"Let's see there's a village of goblins that live in the trees and there's Garin the rock giant... um recently I met some demons that just moved here..."

"You sure make friends fast, how much time do you spend in the forest when I'm not around?"

"Quite a lot actually, 'cause Kat's usually reading or training and Yukina is busy with house work that I wish to skip out on and... I have no idea what Genkai does but I'm sure I'd rather be in the forest than being tortured with whatever she'd have me working on."

"Are you sure, she'd probably just be kicking your butt on video games; so you and Katrina don't hang out much anymore?"

"Yeah, like I said, a lot of the time she's training or reading, I don't mind though because we've been friends for what, ten years now? We hung out with eachother practically non-stop when we were kids but now we've gone our seperate ways, in a way it's like if we were back home we'd be in college and wouldn't really be able to hang out much anyway. Besides, Kat was always the one that wanted to hang out with me whenever she could, though she did respectfully give me my space when I asked for it."

"You know... it feels really weird being in a 'normal' world after three years of hiding in a, what did you call it?"

"Shaniverse?"

"Yeah, that... I still feel like a ten year old kid sometimes."

"Well you're definitely not a ten year old anymore, you're a handsome fifteen year old, who's fine just the way he is."

"Heh, thanks for the reassurance, it's nice- Ow! What was that? OW!"

"I- Oh, hey you crazies quite throwing twigs and acorns at us!" Catherine shouted at the children-like demons ducking behind trees and giggling.

"Are they some of your friends?" Daiku asked putting his hands up to defend himself.

"As a matter of fact they are, and apparently they want to play!" Catherine screamed as she started chasing some of the little ones.

Catherine fell to the ground laughing as she was tackled by three of the demons and Daiku swooped in to try and help only to be knocked over by a sneak attack. "Okay, okay, you've got us you win!" Daiku gasped as they tickled him. Chaterine's cellphone rang 'Someone's calling...Answer the phone... Any day now!' Catherine's voice shouted in replacement of an annoying ring tone. "Okay, guys let me up so I can see who's calling," Catherine sat up and the demons kids fell into her lap then turned their attention on Daiku and attacked him.

"AHH!" Daiku shouted in the background as Catherine answered her phone, "Hello?"

"Catherine? Where are you?" Yukina's voice asked.

"Out in the forset why?"

"It's dinner time, Genkai told me to call you and warn you that 'if you don't get here soon the idiot brigade's going to eat everything and you will go with out', her words not mine, so I suggest you hurry. I'll hold them off until you get here if I can, but they've been fighting all day and they're really hungry."

"Alright Daiku and I'll travel by shadow and be there in a couple minutes, bye," Chatherine hung up. She turned to Daiku but he wasn't there, "Daiku! Where'd you go?" There was some mumbling above her and she looked up to see Daiku tied up in a tree; the demon kids nowhere in sight. Catherine laughed and shouted up, "do you want me to get you down or are you still playing games?"

Daiku's eyes widened and he screamed in irritation, "I'll take that as a 'yes, I'm still playing so just leave me here and I'll get myself down like a magician would... somehow.' So, I guess I'll just go eat dinner and see you tomorrow, byeeee!" Catherine got up and walked off as Daiku struggled and screamed into the gag. He felt a tug on the ropes and tried to turn his head, then the ropes fell to the ground and he followed them, he twisted and tried to grab the tree brach and found himself surrounded in darkness. "Don't worry, I'm not that cruel, Daiku. Now don't let my hand go and we'll be back at Genkai's before dinner even starts."

"Cat, don't you ever do that to me again!" Daiku whinned, he heard some laughter and then he was on the veranda at Genkai's holding his evil girlfriends hand. "You sounded like a little kid, now let's go eat, I'm starving!" Catherine said.

*At the memorial service Katrina looked at old pictures of her Papaw and his family and friends and she talked to random people, Kurama was by her side the entire time. She smiled and was in a good mood until the part where the minister read her Papaw's poems, sang songs, and said nice things about him. Katrina sat on the side because she didn't feel comfortable sitting surrounded by people, she and her younger sister sat together and sobbed as quietly as they could. Kurama sat on the other side of Katrina and gently rubbed her back as she mourned.

After the service she and Kurama got in their rental car and joined the funeral procession on their way to the graveyard. They found a parking spot and Kurama stood in the back with other friends and family while Katrina sat with her family in the second row behind her Grandma. The coffin was a nice, different than the usually wooden coffin, it was a blue thin walled looking coffin with a buch of roses carved into the blue cloth-looking material. There were some marines there because her Papaw was a marine once, they did the gun salute and folded a flag and presented it to her Grandma. She tried not to cry but she couldn't help it, when the funeral was done everyone gathered around for pictures and Katrina's aunt gave out the bullet shells to her father's close family. Katrina was happy that she got one and managed not to cry anymore as Kurama came over after she got her picture taken and asked what she would like to do. Then her little brother came over and gave her a rose and she gave him a big huge and giggled as he tried to pull away. "Let me see what my parents want to do first," she replied to Kurama.

"Mom, did you guys have any plans after this or is it okay if Kurama and I leave now?"

Katrina's mom turned and said, "Well, your Grandma wanted to take us to Frischs for lunch and I think it would be good for you to join us but if you don't feel up to it that's okay."

"It's alright, I'm fine, is it okay if Kurama joins us, I'll pay for our lunch so Grandma doesn't have to, in fact if she'll let me I'll pay for everyone's lunch," Katrina offered.

"Well, thank you but you should talk to her about that, Katrina."

Lunch was very nice and fun, everyone was laughing and happy and Katrina didn't get to fully pay for lunch but she was able help a little. Kurama drove them back to their hotel after lunch and Katrina followed him into his room, "why don't we go for a swim in the hotel pool? It'll be relaxing since no one's in there right now," she suggested.

"Sure, that sounds like fun," Kurama replied as Katrina turned to head to her room to change. Kurama gently took her hand and turned her to him, "Are you going to be okay?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm actually really happy because from what my mom told me about my Papaw, it's better that he di- died," Katrina's voice cracked and a couple of rebel tears ran down her face. Kurama pulled her into his arms and squeezed her, "It's okay..." he whispered into her hair before he kissed her head.

"I- I know, he's in Heaven now and I'll see him again eventually... *sniff* I'll be okay now, thanks. Now, you need to let me go so I can change and we can go swimming," Katrina giggled as she pulled away.

Katrina and Kurama held hands as they walked up the steps to Genkai's a week after the funeral, when they were nearly at the top Kurama had to grab Katrina as Catherine bowled her over in a giant hug. "Hey, Cat, it's great to see you too... can you let go long enough for me to rebalance myself?"

"Sorry, I've been going crazy with out you here to torture, the guys are so boring!"

"Glad to know I'm missed, how was your week?"

"Neh, it was okay... spent most of it with Daiku in the forest introducing him to friend of mine. Occasionaly pranking and sparring- Oh! That reminds me, I was planning on sparring with you as well, so you up for it?"

"You have to ask, I love getting my butt kicked by my best friend!" Katrina dropped her bag and chased Catherine into the forest.

Kurama bent down and picked up Katrina's bag and walked up the rest of the stairs to put her stuff in her room and hang out with his friends.

Catherine prepared her shadow katana while on the alert for the kitsune demon that was after her, she heard a branch creek and her head shot up... nothing there. She searched for the kitsune's shadow but to no avail, _hmmm, I guess she's engulfed herself in flames to eliminate her shadow, she's learned. But if she's covered in flames I should be able to find her fairly easily, maybe Kurama taught her how to disguse herself while they were away. Of course we haven't sparred in a while so she might've discovered a new trick, _Catherine thought. There was a tap on her shoulder and she spun around katana at the ready but no one was there. "D*** It! Kat, where are you?" Catherine shouted.

"If I told you that I wouldn't have the upper hand, now would I?" Katrina's voice echoed around Catherine.

"Ah, c'mon!" Catherine shouted; just as Katrina jumped out of a tree and pinned Catherine to the ground. Katrina's tail twitched in excitement as she jumped off of her best friend and let her up to fight. Catherine grunted and got up reforming her shadow katana while Katrina created a flaming long sword, and the real fight began. Katrina lunged wide Catherine who dodged and struck at Katrina's ribs, managing to get in a hit. "Dang!" Katrina mumbled as she jumed back, disapeared and reappeared whacking Catherine on the back with the broad side of her short sword. Catherine spun around and she and Katrina swapped blows with their blades, back and forth neither gaining ground.

It went on like that for another twenty minutes, then Yusuke walked in between them and shouted, "Aey, are you gonna fight just each other all day or do the rest of us get a chance to fight you? Cause as you know we were all waiting till we felt you two were strong enough that you might be able to hold your own against us." Katrina and Catherine looked at each other, laughed and simoltaniously lunged at Yusuke. He simply jumped into the air and disapeared letting Katrina and Catherine drop their blades to keep from impaling each other. Their swords disapeared and they stopped short of colliding, but Jin caught them with his wind and helped them up. "Yusuke's right 'cha know, we've been waitin' till you two were ready and know it's time to fight, I call Katrina first, Chu you can fight Catherine and then the winners'll fight," Jin said as he dragged Katrina off to find an open space to fight. "Like your tail by the way," he whispered to her.

"Thanks but I'm taken," she whispered back.

"Alright, Sheila*, let's see if you can beat me!" Chu announced looking around in confusion trying to find Catherine.

Author's Note: 1rst* : the funeral and memorial service part went pretty closely to what I typed in the story.

2nd* : 'Sheila' did I spell that right? I can't spell to save my life, I had to use my spelling dicionary quite a few times in this chapter just to make sure. V_V

So please review, favorite, suggest this story to friends and maybe give me ideas for this and other stories of mine? If you'd like me too I'll write a story or one-shot for you, or draw a pic for you if you want... FOR FREE! I'm just really bored and want something to do help me out please! Oh and my b-day's coming up VERY soon, soooo IDK I just felt like typing that. THANK YOU FOR READING! ^^


	14. Chapter 14

Paper Voice

Chapter Fourteen

A YYH Fanfic

Catherine grabbed Chu's leg and dragged him to the ground, "The question is, can you beat me?" Then she slipped back into the shadows as Chu jumped up. Yusuke laughed, "Can't fight someone you can't hit, Chu!" Catherine popped up and gave Chu the chance to take a swing at her before a trendril of her shadow picked him up and tossed him into the air. He twisted himself so that he'd land on his feet but she pitched a shadow ball at him that smashed him in the face and wrapped around his head. Chu struggled to rip the shadows off while Catherine wrapped more and more around him until it looked like he was wrapped in a cacoon of shadows. After a few minutes he stopped struggling and Catherine gently lowered him the ground and peeled the shadows away from his face. "I'd say I'm the winner of this fight," she declared.

"Crap, she beat Chu so easily!" Kuwabara shouted, "It took Yusuke forever to knock him out."

"Well, it ain't my fault that I didn't have as much power as I do now, and besides she didn't even have to touch him to knock him out!"

"C'mon, let's go see how Kat's fight is going," Catherine chimmed in.

Katrina knew that she had the disadvantage in this fight because Jin could easily put out her flames but she was determined to try any way. She ran at him and he flew up in the air, she created whips with her flames and caught Jin's arms and legs and swung him into a tree. He was so startled that he didn't fight back until he had already smashed into the tree and gasped for breath, Katrina pulled on the whips and he flew into the air this time dragging her with him, "now it's my turn," he said. Katrina wanted to let the flames disappear but they were to high up for her to have a safe landing. Jin pulled her close and punched her in the gut, she gasped and couldn't get enough breath to scream when her flames went out and she started falling. She was caught in a blast of wind and thrown into the trees, she hit a few branches on her way down and then finally the ground. Katrina blacked out and when she came to there was a crowd around her. "Ehhhh, my entire body hurts... but *koff* that was a good fight," her vision was blurry and she could only make out the shapes of people.

"Are you okay, Katrina?" Yukina asked, "do you need medical assistance?"

"Neh, I'm fine, um... can I have a little space?" Everyone surrounding Katrina backed up a little and Kurama scooped her up. "Hey, I'm fine, just a little sore, I can walk," she complained.

"Sorry about that, I didn't mean to hurt you so much," Jin said.

"Eh, I'm fine, it was a good fight I had fun, so who won Catherine and Chu's fight? Cause you've got to fight one of them and if it's Catherine I can bet'cha she's gonna kick your butt- Ow! Maybe, I do need medical attention, Yukina... cause, it kinda hurts to breathe too hard," Katrina grimmaced.

Kurama followed Yukina back to Genkai's and everyone else found a safe place to stand and watch Jin and Catherine's fight. A short distance away, safely hidden in the trees, a man sat watching Katrina being carried off. _Hmm, she's a little injured, but that's not a problem. She will make a great addition to my vixen collection, if I could just get her away from everyone else... and her shadowy friend would make a great slave, though it looks like it'll be a challenge to get either one of them._

Later that night Katrina snuck out for a breath of fresh air, two of her ribs were cracked and it would be at least a month before Yukina let her do anything too strenuous. Katrina wandered into the woods and lay on her back looking at the stars through the shifting leaves, slowly, she drifted off to sleep. That's when the man jumped out of a nearby tree and snapped a collar around her neck, in her sleep Katrina shifted into a fox, then the man stuck a needle in one of her fore legs and injected her with his nano-bombs. The collar kept her in her animal form and the nano-bombs ensured that she wouldn't leave the designated area he set up for his vixens.

Katrina woke up in a cramped cage and jumped up letting out a bark of protest, _I'm in my animal form, _she thought. "Ah, good, you're awake," a man's voice came from above her.

"Where am I-" Katrina was cut off as a shock went through her neck.

"Ah, ah, ah! You're one of my vixen's now, you're not allowed to talk, before I let you out I have some rules that you would be wise to follow. 1. You are not allowed to shift out of you fox form unless I allow it 2. You have nano-bombs in your bloodstream that prevent you from going where I don't want you to, if you try a few will go off to warn you 3. You are not allowed to use your powers 4. I am your master and you will always do as I say if you don't want to get hurt. Now, I'm going to release you from this cage and you are welcome to go where you please on the island, but first, you are going to play with my hounds, if you survive then you are worthy of being one of my collection if you die... oh well. Good luck!"

With that the cage opened and Katrina was shoved out, she landed roughly on the ground a couple of feet below her. She barked as pain shot through her ribs. "You'd best get running, vixen, I'm about to release the hounds, and they aren't mercyful." Katrina stood up as the hounds were released and a frenzy of barking went up behind her, she turned only to be attacked by the alpha dog. It latched onto her head and bit down almost hard enough to crush her skull. Panicing she struggled to get free as another dog bit into one of her hind legs and another her tail. She whinned in pain and clawed the alpha's head as deeply as she could, she managed to catch his eye and he howled in pain releasing her head. Katrina turned on the dog that had her leg in it's mouth and bit deeply into her ear, unfortunetly that dog didn't let go, so Katrina clawed and bit her face and grabbed her ear again twisting her head back and forth to cause as much pain as she could. The dog's ear tore off in her jaws and the dog yelped in severe pain, finally letting go of Katrina's leg. The pup attached to her tail seeing what had happened to his parents let go of her tail and she took off for a rock ledge she'd seen from the cage as soon as she was free.

The female dog's ear was still in her teeth and she spit it out, as much pain as she was in she resisted the urge to stop and lick her wounds, she had to get to that ledge and try and escape. When she was nearly there her collar sent a strong shock through her body that knocked her to the ground, she yelped and turned in a different direction. Katrina hated that she was letting this monster control her but there wasn't much that she could do about it at the moment. The dogs had almost caught up with her when she spoted a fox hole and ran into it. She went in as deep as she could then collapsed in exhaustion, her ribs were pounding, her face was bleeding as was her leg and tail but she didn't care, all she could think about was sleep. The dogs were at the entrance diging at the hole trying to get to her and howling for their master to help them. Katrina wanted to threaten them but she couldn't even gather enough energy to lift her muzzle.

The next morning Kurama knocked on Katrina's door, getting no reply he opened the door but she wasn't in there. He shruged assuming that she had already gotten up and went to eat breakfast. When Katrina hadn't shown her face an hour later Kurama asked if anyone had seen her but no one had. Catherine suggested she might be on the roof reading or out in the forest so Kurama checked the roof and then headed into the woods to see if he could find her.

Katrina woke up with dirt and blood crusted in her fur and her entire body was stiff, but it sounded like the dogs had been called off and it was safe to leave the den. Slowly she lifted her head but quickly decided against moving for a little while longer when a headache hit. She lay still until it subsided and she carefully started licking her wounds, the blood tasted disgusting but it was good to feel at least a little cleaner. When she had cleaned up as much as she could her tounge felt numb and the taste of copper in her mouth was sickening. She tried standing again and this time, though a little shaky, she managed, her first thought was to find clean water. Cautiously she approached the hole she'd entered and sniffed the air, the scent of dogs was still there but it was fainter, like they'd been gone for hours, so she climbed out and sniffed the air for water.

Picking up a faint scent and the distant sound of a river, Katrina headed in the direction her senses led her. At the river she laped thirstily, overjoyed as the cool water rushed down her throat and washed away the copper taste. She was tempted to step into the river and soak her sore muscles but she knew that she was too injured to handle shaking off the water afterward. Behind her leaves rustled and she turned around hackles rising and a growl building in her throat.

"Whoah, whoah, it's okay, I just want to help you," a small black fox said as he inched out of the bushes.

"Your mouth isn't moving, are we speaking to each other like animals do?" Katrina asked, still on the defense.

"Yep, now come on, the Master has a nice room set up for you, he sent me to find you and see if you survived the mutts."

"You smell like him, how can I trust you? And why would I want to live somewhere he set up for me when he captured me like a wild animal in the first place?"

"Well, you obviously need medical attention or your wounds will get infected, and yes, it seems weird but the Master is actually extremely kind to us if we survive his mutts. You don't have to trust me, but you don't want to die out here do you?"

"No," Katrina grudingly agreed.

"Good, now follow me and you'll be clean and comfortable in no time," the fox said, turning and heading back through the bushes without seeing if Katrina would follow.

Katrina still didn't trust the fox but she knew he was right, she didn't have much of a choice if she wanted to live, so reluctantly she followed him. It was a long trek through the woods and Katrina limped and tripped a few times, whenever she did the fox would turn around and allow her to lean on him until she growled at him that she was fine. She appreciated his help but she didn't want him to know that. Eventually as it was getting dark they finally reached a castle where tons of foxes and vixens were wandering around freely. "See, I told you the Master is good to us, he lets us have this entire castle to ourselves and even provides us with slaves to take care of us when there are things we can't do."

"Slaves?" Katrina growled, she hated the thought of ordering a slave around.

"It's fine, we never see them unless we're injured or sick, so come on I'll show you to your room," the fox replied.

The room that he showed Katrina was huge and was set up just right for a fox, there were soft pillows on the floor and a huge window that could be pushed open or pulled closed by a rope, even an area for the bathroom that was cleaned regularly by unseen slaves. A slave was sitting politely by a mat and she had needles and bandages and other supplies for healing Katrina's wounds. "I'll leave you to be taken care of, maybe I'll see you later?" Katrina just growled at the fox as he turned his head with a slight pleading look in his eyes; then she walked over to the slave to be healed. She didn't like the thought of a slave having to take care of her but the woman seemed to enjoy gently washing and drying her off then bandaging and stitching up the wounds. The woman never spoke but she radiated kindness and had a very calming effect on Katrina's frayed nerves.

After the slave was sure Katrina was okay and had everything she needed she left and Katrina started pacing the room trying to figure out if she could escape. She heard the door to her room open and close and she assumed it was the slave woman coming back for something she forgot. But then she felt another pelt brush agianst her own and she turned to see a grey fox grining at her, "Who are you?" she asked in a stern voice.

"Oh, you mean the kit didn't tell you? The Master has assigned you a mate and he's chosen me, he thinks that you will provide him with strong kits. He told me to be careful with you because you're injured and he doesn't want you dying before giving him a good litter or two."

Katrina backed up and growled her hackles rising, "I am no one's mate, and I will not have kits with some bully like you! I am going to get out of here and get home, then, I'm going to tell a friend of mine about your Master and free all of the others here."

"Oh really, that's going to be a little hard when you can't leave this island and since I'm your mate that means I have control of you and I want kits!" The grey fox lunged at her an knocked her to the floor, she held back a yelp of pain and bit his fore leg, but she didn't have the strenth to hurt him. Growling he gently gripped her muzzle in his mouth, "You're a fiesty one, the Master's right, you'll provide him with strong kits." The grey fox forced her onto her back but before he could do anything he was kocked off of her, she whipped her head around to see the grey fox fighting with a silver one. "Who are you and what do you think your doing in here?" the grey fox growled.

"I'm her mate and I don't think that she wants you forcing her to do anything!" the silver fox barked. The grey fox bit the silver one's paw and the silver one bit the grey's muzzle. They rolled into the wall and jumped apart then charged and bit and clawed each other over and over. Katrina backed away continuing to growl, she didn't know who this silver fox was but she was pissed at him claming to be her mate, she didn't have a mate and she didn't want one. The silver fox was clawed across the face and pulled back for a second giving the grey fox the upper paw. He lunged at the silver fox aiming for his throat when Katrina jumped between them and the grey fox ended up biting her shouler. She yelped and the silver fox slipped around her and bit deeply into the grey fox's throat, blood whelled up around his muzzle and the grey fox shuddered then collapsed. The silver fox dropped him on the floor and turned to Katrina, "are you okay?"

"Am I okay? I'm fine, you just killed him!" she barked.

"I was trying to protect you, and he would have killed me! He wouldn't have stopped until he'd killed me and had you as his mate! What was I supposed to do, let him do as he pleased with you?"

"I can handle myself, you didn't need to kill him! And why did you say you were my mate? I don't have a mate!"

"Because it was a way to catch him off gaurd and maybe get him to leave you alone!"

"Hmph, who are you anyway?"

"You mean you don't recignize me?" Katrina took a minute to sniff him but she still didn't know who he was, she figured he was just another fox living here who happend to hate the grey fox. "No, why should I?"

"Never mind, I'll let you figure it out, Katrina."

"How do you know my name I never told you?" The silver fox smiled and sighed, then picked up the grey fox and took him to the 'bathroom' area and started digging, reluctantly Katrina joined him and asked who he was again. "You can call me Yoko," he replied.


	15. Chapter 15

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Fifteen

The next morning a slave came in to escort Katrina to the Master because he wanted to talk to her. Katrina woke to the sound of the door opening and found Yoko curled protectively around her, she growled softly and got up to limp after the slave.

Outside the slave started leading her to the Masters home as he explained why she was sent for, "The Master has chosen you as one of his favorites, which means that you will live with him until he grows tired of you and sends you back to the castle." Katrina wanted to turn and run back to her room, she'd rather die than stay in the Master's company for a minute, but she'd seen that some of the foxes didn't have collars and assumed that if she were good she might get hers taken off. The slave led her through the castle, then through the woods to a simple cabin. He knocked on the door and waited for an answer, the little black fox from yesterday poked his head out a small dog door and barked then went back inside. A minute later the Master answered the door, "yes?"

"Master, I have brought Katrina as you requested, and as you thought the silver fox killed the grey one, I believe they buried him, Sir."

"Good, I didn't much like that grey fox anyways... didn't even know his name. Oh well, come on Katrina I want to explain what's going on," The Master turned and headed back inside and Katrina reluctantly followed him. "As my slave probably told you I've chosen you as one of my favorites. So you will be living with me until I decide to send you back to the castle, and I have someone I want you to take care of, Ritsu!" At the Master's call the little black fox came running and sat happily at his Master's feet, "This little goof, is Ritsu, his mother died so I've decided that you will be his new mother. In fact, I just thought of this, that silver fox will be your new mate since he killed the other one so you two will be Ritsu's parents. Enjoy, he's quite a pawful!" The Master laughed at his own joke and headed off to another room in the cabin to send another slave for the silver fox.

Katrina looked down at the little black fox, Ritsu; he looked up at her and grinned, "Mommy!" He shouted and pounced on her, she wanted to roll over and nip his ear but he was an orphan and way to cute to resist. Instead of getting angry at him she sat up, mindful of her ribs, and said that her name was Katrina, not Mommy. And that when the silver fox got there he was to be called Yoko, not Daddy, because he wasn't her mate and they weren't his parents.

"Why don't you want to be my parents? I helped you yesterday and you seem like you'd make a great Mommy, I don't have a Mommy and I love you!" Ritsu said, and tilted his head slightly.

"Ritsu, I'm not your Mommy and I'm not going to be, I'll be your friend but I refuse to adopt you..." Katrina tried to look away as she mumbled, "No matter how cute you are."

"Play with me!" Ritsu shouted as he pounced on her again.

Katrina fell over and yelped as Ritsu landed on her ribs, his ears dropped and he slid off of her giving her a sad look. She gently rolled over and stared at him, then licked his head and knocked him over, "You're it!" she whispered, and got up and limped away.

"Yea!" he shouted, and scampered after her.

There was a knock on the door while Ritsu and Katrina were play wrestling, Ritsu jumped up and ran to see who it was then came running back and bounced a little as he told Katrina that Daddy was here. She sighed and decided not to correct Ritsu any more because it would be too much of a hassle. The Master answered the door again and thanked the slave for bringing the silver fox; closing the door he turned to the silver fox and explained to him what was going on then sent him to find Katrina and Ritsu.

"Hello, Ritsu, I guess I'm your father now, it's nice to meet you," Yoko said.

"Hi, Daddy, Mommy and I were just wrestling, want to join us?"

"Nah, I think I'll just watch, I don't want to hurt your mother by accident."

"Okay, here I come, MOMMY!"

Katrina and Ritsu played all sorts of games and occasionally Yoko tried to join in but Katrina growled at him and he backed off smirking. Eventually Ritsu grew too tired to stand and collapsed on the floor; Katrina picked him up by the scruff and took him to the bed that she'd be sharing with him and Yoko. When Ritsu was settled Yoko came over and brushed his tail across the kit, "He's so sweet, are you sure that you don't want to adopt him, if we escape don't you want to take him with us?"

"Who said anything about **us** escaping together? I plan on gaining the Master's trust so that he'll take this collar off of me and remove the nano-bombs and then I'm going to shift into my demon form and go home!"

"I don't believe the Master put nano-bombs in him," Yoko motioned with his tail at the kit, "and I know that he didn't put them in me. So why can't we escape with you, I can help you, and do you really want to leave orphaned Ritsu with this creep?"

"No, but... we're not mates, I have a boyfriend back home and I-" Katrina paused then said the words she reserved for her family and closest friend Catherine who was like a sister to her, "I love him."

Yoko blinked in surprise and said, "You love me?"

"What are you talking about? I said I love my boyfriend Kurama, not you!"

"Kat, it is me, just like you I have a demon form, Yoko Kurama, I didn't want to tell you because shortly before I met you I chose to no longer have any connection to my former self. The only reason I shifted was so that I could find you and hopefully get you out of here. I love you too, and it scared me to death when I found you on the forest floor the other day and then you disappeared the next morning. If anything happened to you I don't know what I'd do, but I won't let anyone hurt you ever again, I promise you we'll get home, all of us."

Katrina stared down at Ritsu trying to make sense of what she'd just been told... then she remembered being in America watching Yu Yu Hakusho with Catherine and seeing Kurama turn into Yoko and she broke down laughing. Ritsu stirred and Yoko looked at her like she was crazy.


	16. Chapter 16

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Sixteen

Author's Note: Please forgive me I know that the last chapter was short and super cheesy, I laughed so hard at the pathetic-ness of it. The reason it was short is because I have a REALLY bad habit of procrastinating and I knew that I didn't have any idea where to go to add more to the chapter and I was afraid it would be forever before I did anything with it if I left it so I posted the crappy thing. Again sorry. But it was good for a laugh right? Anyway, this chapter's kinda… okay really crappy too, at least in the beginning if not through the rest of it as well, sorry, I'm just trying to write something to progress the story and this is what I've had in my head since chapter fifteen. I hope that it's okay enough for ya guys… anyone who actually reads this…

The next morning Katrina was outside sunning herself while Yoko and Ritsu were wandering around in the forest surrounding the cabin. The shadows around Katrina started shifting and she jumped up in surprise as Catherine materialized in front of her. "Katrina, what happened to you, where are we right now? Never mind, we need to go!" Catherine grabbed Katrina and started to drag her through the shadow portal she'd created. Katrina was about to protest when her collar shocked her and sent a jolt through Catherine as well. Catherine dropped Katrina and jumped back nursing her injured hand. "What was that?"

"That was my collar; you need to get out of here NOW!"

"No way, I'm not leaving with out you."

"You don't have a choice, if you stay He'll capture you… or worse and you can't rescue me if you're DEAD!"

Catherine was about to protest again when Katrina shakily shoved her into the portal, sensing that it's creator was in danger the portal closed and sent Catherine back to where the original portal had been created. Katrina collapsed in pain but was grateful that her friend was safe; before she closed her eyes she saw the Master storming up to her. The look on his face told her that she was in serious trouble and most definitely in for sever punishment. "How dare you try and escape!" The Master shouted as he roughly hoisted Katrina up by the scruff of her neck, "I provided you with medical attention, a mate, a kit, free range of the forest surrounding this cabin; and all I ask in return is that you live here with me. But you seem to be a glutton for punishment. I know the dogs have been dying to get a hold of you after what you did to them; I guess I'll leave it up to them to punish you." The Master carried Katrina around the cabin to the large dog pin and stopped at the fence. He whistled to the dogs that perked up at the sight of the vixen dangling just out of reach. "I will leave this vixen to you to do with as you please, short of killing her. I will be back tonight to retrieve her and she'd better be alive or you will suffer!" With that said the Master dropped Katrina into the dog pin and left.

The dogs immediately surrounded her; they were biting her ears, clawing her face, chewing on her tail, stepping on her ribs… There was no end to the pain she felt, she begged for them to stop and whished she could pass out but the pain kept her just conscious enough and every time darkness tried to claim her the dogs would bite or bark and wake her.

Katrina was bleeding and every inch of her screamed in pain by the time the Master finally came back to collect her. "Maybe that will teach you not to try and run away," He whispered gently as he scooped her up and walked to the front door of the cabin. Yoko was pacing restlessly near the door while he waited for the Master to bring Katrina in to be healed. Ritsu was sitting and watching wondering where his Mommy was and why Daddy was so restless. When the door opened and the Master walked in Yoko ran to the door growling. "Hush, Yoko, I had to teach her, she's lucky she's one of my favorites or I might have let the dogs kill her. Now back off so my slave can heal her or she just might die, and none of us want that." Yoko did as he was told and nudged Ritsu ahead of him to the bed.

"What happened to Mommy?" Ritsu asked smelling Katrina's blood.

"The dogs… Now come on, you should get to bed you can see Katrina in the morning," Yoko's tone let Ritsu know that his Daddy was concerned and angry at the same time and so he did as he was told.

Catherine landed on her but on Genkai's veranda and started cursing, Daiku ran up to her and asked, "Did you find her?"

"Of course I found her you f****** idiot! She sent me back, she's in serious danger, we need to get her out of there as fast as we can!"

Daiku was caught off guard by Catherine's langue towards him but quickly dismissed it because he understood it was her way of expressing her fear. "Come on, I can get to her but she doesn't want me to help her because she's afraid I'll get killed. So I need back up!" Catherine stormed off to find help from anybody and everybody that would go with her through her portals.

Ritsu tossed and turned in his sleep, at one point Yoko was shoved out of their bed. He was tempted to crawl back in but decided against it and quickly fell back to sleep on the floor. In the morning Ritsu woke up unable to deal with his nightmares any more and panicked when he didn't see his Mommy or Daddy anywhere, "Daddy!" Yoko sat up groggily and glared at the kit, "What do you want?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know where you were, I thought that you'd abandoned me like my real Daddy did," Ritsu said in a tiny voice. Yoko softened and climbed into the bed with Ritsu and let the kit curl up next to him and fall back asleep with a grin on his face; then Yoko lowered his head and slept until noon.

When Ritsu woke up again he carefully left the bed and went to search for his Mommy. He wondered around the main area of the cabin but he didn't see her anywhere, as he passed the door to the Master's room he caught a glimpse of orange fur. Carefully he peered into the room, and on the foot of the Master's bed was his Mommy, bandaged and stitched up but breathing and alive. Ritsu didn't want to go into the room for fear of the Master punishing him but he whispered, "Mommy?" When she didn't reply he backed his head out of the room and turned running into the Master's legs. He froze and slowly looked up into the smiling face of the Master, "Would you like to go in and see your Mother?" the Master asked. Ritsu's tail twitched almost in a wag betraying his thoughts.

The Master laughed softly and pushed the door open a little more, waving a hand to signal that it was okay for Ritsu to go in. Tentatively Ritsu put a paw into the room and when the Master didn't reprimand him he padded in and carefully leaped onto the bed near his Mommy. She whined a little in her sleep but quickly quieted down, Ritsu sniffed her and grimaced, she smelled of herbs and blood. "Mommy, are you okay," he whispered into her ear. Katrina's ear twitched and she sighed as she opened her eyes and carefully turned her head towards the little voice. "Good morning, Ritsu," she said momentarily forgetting what happened the other day until she tried to turn over and barked in pain.

"Mommy, are you okay?" Ritsu said backing up in fear of hurting her.

"I-I'll be okay, Ritsu, I just… got hurt really bad yesterday."

"Oh, Daddy said something about the dogs, did they get loose and attack you, the Master was gone almost all day. Did the dogs chase you and attack you and so the Master when looking for you and didn't find you until it was almost too late?"

Katrina didn't want to upset Ritsu so she slowly nodded her head and Ritsu growled, "Don't worry, Mommy, next time I'll protect you, I won't let those horrible dogs hurt you ever again!" Katrina smiled and slowly tried to get up when the Master came in and said that it probably wasn't the best idea for her to be up and about yet. She had to hold back a growl when she saw the Master she wanted nothing more than for the dogs to turn on him and kill him. The Master caught her look and sighed, then sat down and started petting Ritsu. Ritsu pulled away and pounced on his hand laughing.

Yoko stretched and got out of bed eager to find Katrina and make sure she was okay when he heard Ritsu laughing and Katrina's voice underneath it telling him to be careful around her. Their voices were coming from the Master's bedroom. Yoko was reluctant to enter but the Master spotted him hesitating in the doorway and called him in. Katrina smiled, glad that someone else who didn't like the Master was joining them and hopefully be able to help her keep her temper down. "Look at the happy family," the Master said as he reached to pet Yoko, who growled a warning and the Master glared at him. "I treat you fairly; if you don't want your privileges restricted then you will do as I say." So Yoko settled protectively next to Katrina and let the Master pet him while Ritsu bounced around trying to get attention.


	17. Chapter 17

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Seventeen

After twenty minutes of putting up with the Master, Yoko stretched and leapt off the bed, Katrina tried to follow him but the Master grabbed her ribs and glared at her. "I didn't give you permission to leave," his hand tightened around her and she yelped in pain. Yoko had had enough and leapt at the Master's throat. The Master caught him around the throat mid leap and threw Katrina into a wall, she hit it and there was an audible crack as her head smacked it and she landed on the floor unable to get back up. Yoko barked and the Master dropped him on the floor then snapped his fingers, Katrina's collar came alive with electricity that coursed through her and made her unconscious form jerk.

"If you aren't careful she just might die, a few of the bombs in her system exploded and she might be bleeding internally, but this time I'm not going to send for a medic for her because of you," the Master got up laughing, and left the room. Yoko ran over to Katrina and put an ear to her chest, her heart was beating too fast and her breathing was shallow. Regardless of the consequences Yoko shifted into his demon form and pulled healing herbs out of nowhere.

Catherine ran around Genkai's collecting everyone, shouting that she'd found Katrina and she was going to bring her back. "Toya, I need you and one other to come with me... get Rinku and let's GO!"

Toya went to find Rinku while Catherine opened another portal and ordered Yukina to fix Katrina's room and be prepared to heal her immediately. "When I left she looked really beat up, who knows how much trouble she's managed to get herself into in the last... who knows how much time's past since I left! Who, cares, TOYA, RINKU, GET YOUR A**ES OUT HERE!"

Rinku and Toya came running and Catherine grabbed their hands, "You can't travel through the portals without my help, the plan is simple: Rinku stands guard while Toya freezes the collar off of her and I pull out the bombs and blow them up in the shadow dimension." Toya and Rinku nodded their agreements and Catherine dragged them through the portal; Catherine peeked out of Katrina's shadow and nearly abandoned the guys when she saw the state her best friend was in. She threw Rinku and Toya out of the shadows and followed suit, coming up in front of Yoko- who was too preoccupied trying to prevent his girlfriend from dying.

"Who the h*** are you and wha-"*

"Yoko? But, Kurama, I thought you decided not to change into him ever again?" Toya interrupted Catherine.

"The situation called for it; in order to find Katrina I had no other choice. Now, Catherine, get us home!"

"First off, don't yell at me, and second, I need to get those bombs out of my big sis* or else she won't make it home. So, back off! Toya freeze that stupid collar, Rinku stand guard with Kurama; and no one bother me until I can get us out of here."

Catherine took a deep breath and engulfed Katrina in a shadow; that shadow sank into her searching out and removing the bombs. Once Catherine was sure she'd collected all of the bombs she set them off in the Shadow realm, screaming and collapsing over her friend. Toya jumped and lifted her up, "What's wrong, what happened?" he asked.

"I didn't realize the bombs would affect me," she gasped as she regained her senses.

"You're okay though, right, we can get out of here now?" Rinku asked, turning away from the door.

"Yeah, I'm gonna take Katrina first then I'll be back for you guys," Catherine scooped up Katrina as carefully as she could and the frozen collar cracked and fell apart.

Back at Genkai's Catherine burst in and gently set her friend on the bed Yukina and Genkai had made up for her. They immediately went to work healing her as Catherine went back for everyone else. She took Rinku and Toya back without a problem, but when she tried to get Kurama he told her to wait, he had to get Ritsu.

"Who the h*** is Ritsu, we don't have time we need to—" Catherine was cut off as the Master walked in. Kurama turned to see why she'd shut up and saw the Master strangling her, pulling out his whip he moved to attack but only managed to scratch the Master's throat as a dog bit deeply into his right arm. He shouted in pain and tried to hit the dog, Catherine jumped up as the Master fell away from her and she grabbed Kurama's left arm. "We can't leave Ritsu!" Kurama shouted, Catherine sighed and scooped up the fox kit that Kurama was reaching for, shifted the kit to her free hand and dragged Kurama, Ritsu and the dog through the portal.

A portal opened up in front of Genkai's and dumped out its contents; Ritsu wriggled out of Catherine's grasp and barked for his adopted parents. Yoko changed back to Kurama, the dog still fiercely gripping his arm and Catherine fell on top of the dog. Startled the beast loosened its grip enough for Kurama to pull his arm out of its mouth; he scooped up the noisy Ritsu and ran inside to find Katrina. Catherine jumped off of the dog and created a shadow muzzle around its jaws and a chain around its neck. For everyone's safety she dragged the struggling beastie over to a tree and secured the shadow chain around it.

"It's okay, Baby, I'll get you some food and water in a little bit, you just settle down. You don't have to be mean anymore, Bruno. I'm gonna take good care of you and no one's going to hurt you. It's okay, calm down, Sweetie, it's okay," Catherine cooed as she tentatively petted the dog's head.

Katrina groaned in pain and slowly opened her eyes, her vision was blurry and the pain shooting through her was too much for her to take. Shifting back into her human self she quickly slipped back into glorious painless darkness.

Rinku squirmed and tried to bite Kurama's hand, he didn't recognize the scent of the man carrying him and he had no idea where he was. He wanted his Mommy and Daddy or the Master, there were so many strange faces and scents surrounding him now it confused and scared him.

"Ritsu, calm down, no one's going to hurt you," the strange man said as he shifted his grip on the black fox kit.

Kurama carefully held Ritsu to his chest and his bleeding arm just below the fidgeting kit. Once he knew Katrina was safe he would be able to tend to his arm and settle Ritsu down, but not until he knew she was okay. Reaching the room she was staying in at Genkai's he saw Yukina and Genkai working at a steady pace around her bed. Quietly he stood in the doorway, he saw Katrina must have become conscious long enough to shape-shift because she was on her back in human form. Ritsu wriggled out of Kurama's arms and jumped onto the edge of Katrina's bed. Losing his balance he fell onto the floor and tripped Yukina, causing her to land on her bum next to him. Leaning forward she scooped up the restless kit and walked over to Kurama.

"Kurama, your arm!"

"I know; I'll take care of it, could you keep Ritsu out of trouble for me please?"

"Um…"

"Go, Yukina, I can handle Katrina on my own now and if that little kit stays in here he'll only be in the way," Genkai said without ceasing her care of Katrina. Nodding Yukina followed Kurama out of the room, Kurama headed to the bathroom to care for his arm while Yukina took Ritsu into the living room.

Outside Catherine sat next to Bruno gently scratching his ears while he rested his head in her lap. "That's a good boy, Bruno, good dog. You don't have to be mean or scared of getting hurt ever again. I'm gonna take good care of you, you've got nothing to worry about," she cooed trying to distract herself from getting emotional over Katrina. It was her fault they were here after all; she was the one who decided to take Gensu's offer. Katrina only went along to make sure she didn't get herself killed! And now look, Katrina could be dead because of her. Katrina was the rational one, the one who kept Catherine sane and if Katrina dies… No, she's not dead and she's not going to die, why? Because she's Katrina, she's been through way too many near-death situations to die from this crap. She- she's going to be okay and she'll be ready to kick my butt in a few days. Just like the good old days, she'll come after me and I'll end up winning but we'll have fun and everything will be back to normal. Catherine felt hot tears burning her eyes, begging to be released but she wouldn't let them come. There were only three people she would cry in front of and she wasn't about to break down now.

Bruno growled and lifted his head out of Catherine's lap; she turned and saw Hiei standing behind her.

"Were you about to cry?"

"No, of course not; what are you doing here? I thought you hated the human world?"

"What's everyone freaking out about up at Genkai's?"

"Katrina's hurt… really bad… but you- why do you care and why are you here in the first place? Problems with your-" before Catherine could finish that thought Hiei's sword was against her throat.

"I suggest you drop that topic before I remove your head," he growled.

Bruno jumped up to bite Hiei in defense of his new master but was pulled back by his shadow chain. Hiei glared at Catherine and she whispered a quick apology before disappearing. The real Catherine was standing by the tree Bruno was tied to, pulling on his chain to keep him from being Hiei's next target.

"So, why are you here, Hiei?" Hiei ignored Catherine's question and walked up towards Genkai's. Sighing Catherine released Bruno, who ran to the end of his chain and tried to bark through his muzzle. Catherine walked up to Bruno, patted his head and told him she'd be back with his food and water. Slowly she walked up to Genkai's after Hiei.


	18. Chapter 18

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Eighteen

Kurama grimaced as he cleaned and bandaged his arm; Katrina was the only thing on his mind at the moment. She'd be okay, he knew she would, she's a demon and demon's have taken worse injuries than that and survived. Everyone was in the living room probably pestering Catherine for more information on what had happened. He didn't want to leave her to deal with that but he had work tomorrow and he was determined to spend as much time by Katrina's side as he could. Besides, he had to reassure Ritsu that he was safe.

When his arm was bandaged and he'd cleaned up the mess he'd made, Kurama went straight back to Katrina's room. Genkai had left and Ritsu was curled up on a chair next to Katrina's bed; gently Kurama scooped Ritsu up and sat down setting the kit in his lap. Ritsu jumped onto Katrina's bed and growled at Kurama, who sighed and shifted for a minute into his feral form so as to reassure Ritsu that he could be trusted. The kit stood startled on the bed and said, "Daddy? You- you're one of those weird two-legged shifter creatures? Like Mommy?" Kurama nodded and shifted back to Shuichi and Ritsu jumped into his lap and curled up. "Is Mommy going to be okay, Daddy?"

"Yes, Katrina will be okay, she's just going to sleep for a while to give her body time to heal."

"Daddy?"

"Hmm?"

"What's your family like? Master told me that my real parents were… um… He said my real Daddy was a fox, just a plain old animal. And my real Mommy was a demon fox and he was curious as to how I'd turn out cause of that. He called me a half-breed, but cause Momma was one of his favorites he kept me after she died."

"Don't call that man Master, he's gone now and I would prefer you not bring him up anymore."

"Alright; but what are you? Cause if you can change… how can you change into three different looking creatures? Are you a half-breed too? That's why I wanna know what your family's like."

"My story's complicated; I don't think you'd understand it right now. Maybe when you're older I'll tell you. My family though, I can talk to you about, I have a mother, step-father and step-brother."

"What's a step-whosey-wha-?" Kurama smiled down at Ritsu and laughed, "A step-father and step-brother are family related to you through marriage but not blood. My mother and father were married and had me; when I was very young my father died. A few years ago my mother remarried and her new husband already had a son with his previous wife, making his son my step-brother."

"So," Ritsu cocked his head to the side and looked up at Kurama, "Am I like your step-son or something?"

"Heh, no, Katrina and I aren't your parents in any form, we're just taking care of you."

"But- why can't you be my parents? The Ma- uh- the um… man who used to take care of me said you two are my new Mommy and Daddy."

"Well, it's complicated, Ritsu."

"What's so complicated about it? You guys love each other right?"

"Yes but-"

"So, you guys are my Mommy and Daddy, you take care of me together like parents should!"

"Ritsu, Katrina and I- we're- we're only boyfriend and girlfriend right now. If- and I most certainly hope not- we were to ever break-up who would take you then? Would you want to have to choose between us?"

"Well, no, but I would definitely choose Mommy over you; no offense, Daddy. So why don't you two get married, since ya love each other and everything. Then you definitely wouldn't break-up and I'd get to be raised by both of you!" Ritsu barked a little in excitement at his believed to be brilliant idea.

Kurama stared a little wide-eyed at Ritsu for a second before answering, "Yes, Katrina and I love each other but we really haven't been together that long. Marriage right now would be much too sudden and may cause more trouble then happiness. We will- if fortune smiles on us- get married in the future but for right now, we're happy the way we are."

"But, if you're married you could… um… adopt! Yeah, you could adopt me if you were married and then I'd be yours for real and maybe have a little brother or sister someday!" Kurama sighed and tried not to laugh at Ritsu's enthusiasm and insistence on a marriage immediately. "What, you and Mommy don't want to have kids? I would love to have a little sister or bother to play with!"

"Ritsu, I think we should end this conversation now, don't you want to take a nap, or better, go exploring? There's quite a lot to see around here, I think you'd have a lot of fun; just don't stray too far from the temple if you go outside and be back here before dark, okay?" Ritsu jumped up and ran under Katrina's bed then out the open door whooping in excitement at the thought of exploration. Kurama sighed in relief as he stood up and shut the door. That kit was going to be quite a handful, but now he could just sit quietly with his girlfriend until he had to leave for work the next morning.

Three days later Katrina was still unconscious and Catherine was starting to grow concerned. Genkai wasn't doing too well since healing Kat because she was… well to put it bluntly she was old and the major healing she'd done had taken a lot out of her. Everyone had gone home because of the situation but they insisted that Catherine keep them up to date on Kat and Genkai's health. The only one's left at Genkai's now where Genkai herself, Yukina, Ritsu, Catherine and Katrina. Daiku was staying with Yusuke- and helping him with his business- and had been for quite a while now.

Catherine was tired of the melancholic feeling around the house and was going to take Bruno for a walk when she heard a terrified scream coming from Kat's room. Running in to see what was wrong she found Kat sitting up in bed crying and clutching her ribs. She dropped down onto the edge of Kat's bed and scooped her into a gentle hug. "Shhh, Katrina, what's wrong? You're safe, you're okay, just tell me what's wrong, Sweetie," Catherine said soothingly as she rubbed Kat's back. Katrina breathed slowly trying to ease the pain and release the fear before speaking. "I had a horrible nightmare. Everything was dark, like light had never existed, then a light appeared and I saw my little sister. She was… cutting herself, something we both know she would never do. I tried to call out for her to stop but as I opened my mouth she looked up at me, smiled and slit her throat. Th- then… It went dark again and I heard the sound of a rope creaking from the strain of something heavy dangling from it behind me. When I turned…" Katrina took a deep breath and more tears escaped, "when I turned my brother was hanging there… and grinning too! I dropped to my knees and let loose a silent scream and the sound of tires squealing and headlights in front of me made me look up.

My Dad and youngest sister were in our van and a semi-truck appeared out of nowhere and ploughed into them crushing them against a huge, very solid building. I collapsed and begged to wake up or die, I didn't care I just couldn't take anymore. The sound of sobbing filled the darkness and I thought I'd finally been permitted the ability to utter sound. Below me it looked like I was looking into a reflection and my mother's image appeared, she was curled up in her bed sobbing over everyone. As I watched I could sense that the years were going by and that my mother had spent the rest of her life grieving us before finally being allowed to join us in death. Don't ask me how I knew I was dead I just did. Finally, the pain was so overwhelming that I stood screaming and ripping at my hair, then I collapsed and pounded the darkness that was ground below me. The pain emotionally was so immense I just begged for death to end me but I knew it couldn't happen. That this was my own personal…well…you know."

"How did you wake up in the end?" Catherine whispered after Kat had been silent for a few minutes.

"For the longest time there was nothing but pain. I couldn't wake up; I think what made me snap was… what I saw right before I woke up screaming and in physical pain."

"Do- do you think you could tell me? Saying it out loud might help make it easier to get over."

"Yeah… I need to say it or it'll drive me crazy. What caused me to wake up was… the monster that'd kidnapped me. Curled up in a ball I refused to move, but I could sense those horrible deaths replaying all around me. Then it just stopped. Slowly I started to feel hopeful that something good was happening; but I'd been tricked. Uncurling and sitting up I saw that monster holding Ritsu by the scruff of his neck over the pin of dogs that he'd dropped me into. He grinned at me, Ritsu silently cried out for my help, and then he was falling through the air down into the pin. The dogs swarmed him but made sure I had a clear view of them ripping Ritsu apart. A scream of anger ripped through me and I jumped up to tear out that monster's throat and I woke up here and in terrible pain."

"You're awake now, and that's the important part, are you okay?"

"Yeah, jittery- how long was I asleep?"

"Three days."

"Three day- wow," Katrina shook her head, "So how's everyone else been since I've been gone? I mean including when I'd disappeared." Catherine pulled out of the hug and let her friend lean back and see her face. "Honestly, Kat, not much happened, when you were missing Kurama was the one who discovered it around lunch time the next day. We were all kinda concerned but didn't have much time to really get worked up about it cause I'd managed to find you soon afterward. Brought you back, Genkai and Yukina healed you and… now you're awake," Katrina didn't trust the fake smile on her best friend's face, "What aren't you telling me, Cat?"

"What? Okay, well there was a little bit of a panic when you went missing but everything's good now."

"Cat, what are you trying to hide from me?" Catherine wouldn't look Katrina in the eye, glancing at the clock she jumped up causing the bed to bounce and Katrina to hiss in pain. "Would you look at the time! I really should call Kurama and let him know you're awake, he'll be thrilled. He didn't want to leave you but he had work and family obligations that he knew he wouldn't be able to skip out on. Not that he doesn't care about you it's just that he knew you were okay and that we'd call him if anything happened; so I'm gonna call him and let you two spend some quality time together," Catherine pulled out her cell phone as she left the room and closed the door behind her.

Dialing Kurama's number she thought about why she wasn't telling Katrina everything. She couldn't tell her about Genkai, not yet at least, she just woke up after a very traumatic experience and a horrible nightmare. Catherine didn't want to add to her trouble right now; Kurama answered on the second ring, "Catherine? How's Katrina, is she okay?"

"She's better than okay; she's awake, so get your butt over here pronto- she really needs you right now."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Kurama hung up the phone as soon as the sentence had left his mouth. Catherine put her phone away and decided to proceed with her earlier plan of taking Bruno for a walk. Who knows, maybe she'd run into Hiei hiding out in the forest and she'd manage to weasel some answers out of him as to why he was in the human realm instead of doing his job.

Kurama was true to his word and arrived at Genkai's temple no more than two hours and fifteen minutes after receiving Catherine's phone call. Katrina's bedroom door was shut so he knocked softly, "Come in," he heard and his heart leapt with joy at the sound of Katrina's voice. He quickly opened and shut the door behind him as he rushed over to Katrina's bed.

Katrina was caught off guard as Kurama scooped her up- she'd been sitting on top of her blankets reading while she waited for him- into his arms, dropped onto the bed and set her in his lap gently, hugging her. "I missed you so much," he mumbled into her hair. She turned her face up towards his and smiled softly at him and kissed his smiling mouth. "I missed you too," she replied after pulling away.

"I never want to let you go," Kurama said as he shifted so that they were lying comfortably on the bed, his arms wrapped around her. She tried to move her legs on top of his but an intense pain shot through her right leg and she held back a yelp. It escaped as a strangled squeak and Kurama could see the pain in her face as she curled up in his arms. "Are you okay," he asked in immediate concern. Katrina slowly lifted her head, tears in her eyes and nodded, "I'm fine, just a little too sudden of a movement for my leg I guess." Kurama looked down, "which leg was it?"

"The right one… the one the dogs chewed up," she mumbled. Kurama looked at her asking permission to see her leg, she nodded and he gently pulled the leg of her pajama pants up to her knee. Her leg was bandaged but had started to bleed from the sudden movement. "Didn't anyone think to stitch it up?" Kurama asked in frustration. "Well, I'll see if Yukina can do something about it, I'll be right back." Sitting up Kurama kissed Katrina before getting up to find Yukina. He left the door open incase Katrina needed anything; just down the hall he found Yukina chasing Ritsu. "Yukina, Katrina's leg is bleeding could you please take care of it?" Yukina scooped Ritsu up and handed him to Kurama, "of course, I'm sorry about that, at the time I thought it would heal well enough on its own. I'll make sure that the wound won't reopen this time."

Ritsu looked up at Kurama, "Daddy, how come only you and Mommy can understand me? I keep trying to talk to those girls but they don't seem to get what I'm saying."

"I guess it's because Katrina and I can change into foxes; if you could change into a human then the others would understand you but you and I communicate differently than humans."

"So, it's like we're speaking a different language?"

"Yes, now, I don't mean to cut our time short, but I don't have much time right now and if you don't mind I'd like to spend it with Katrina. I haven't gotten to spend time with her for a while now; I promise I'll play with you next time I visit though okay?"

"Okey-dokey, Daddy," Ritsu shouted as he jumped out of Kurama's arms and ran off to find something else to do.

Kurama was going to go back to Katrina's room but the sight of Botan running towards him, tears in her eyes, alarmed him. "Botan what are you-"

"Kurama, she- she's… Genkai's… I had to take her! Genkai's dead," she whispered.

"We need to tell everyone; did Genkai tell you anything?"

"She said she'd left her Will on a table in her room and to tell everyone to just let her finally be."

"You let Hiei and Catherine know, I'll tell Yukina and Katrina then we'll start calling everyone else before we read her Will."

Entering Katrina's room Kurama stood silent for a few minutes as Yukina finished taking care of Katrina's leg. Looking up Katrina's smile died as she saw the pain in Kurama's eyes, "Kurama, what's wrong?" Yukina stood up and looked towards Kurama as well. "Genkai's dead, Botan's here; we're going to gather everyone and read her Will and find out what she wanted us to do." Yukina's hands flew to her mouth and tears sat in her eyes begging to be released. Katrina looked at her friend and told her it was okay for her to cry if she needed to; given permission Yukina's tears flowed and changed to pearls bouncing on Katrina's bed and floor. Katrina sat up to hug Yukina who gladly collapsed into her arms and Kurama rested his hand on Katrina's back, a single tear sliding down his cheek.


	19. Chapter 19

Paper Voice

A YYH Fanfic

Chapter Nineteen

Botan did as Kurama said and jumped on her oar to fly over the forest surrounding Genkai's temple calling for Hiei and Catherine. After ten minutes of circling around where Cat and Hiei were usually found in the forest Catherine finally shouted up to her. "Botan, what are you doing here? What's all the shouting about?" Botan flew down to Cat, face red and nose stuffy from crying, "I was looking for you and Hiei obviously. We need to get back to Genkai's now."

"Why?" Hiei asked appearing on a tree branch above the girls.

"Gah! Hiei don't do that! We need to get back to Genkai's because… she's… dead."

Catherine sprang into immediate action; she scooped up Bruno and slipped through a shadow portal coming up on Genkai's veranda. A couple minutes later she was joined by Hiei and Botan; Bruno was tied up under the veranda and Catherine ran inside. 'She can't be dead,' she thought, 'she's too- too stubborn to die just from being a little sick!' Bursting into Genkai's room Catherine begged for the sound of Genkai's scratchy voice berating her for being a rude child.

The only thing she heard was the sound of the door slaming into the frame behind her. Genkai was lying on her futon with the blankets pulled up to her chin. She was so pale and fragile looking but she couldn't be dead, she just couldn't be! Catherine dropped to her knees beside Genkai, 'she's just resting; that's all! That's why she didn't yell at me, she's deep asleep and didn't hear me!' Reaching over to feel Genkai's forehead to see if she had a fever Catherine watched carefully but didn't see her chest rising and falling with breath. Slowly, tears starting to form, Catherine placed her hand on Genkai's forehead; it was so… so cold. Why would Yukina let her get this cold? Didn't she know that Genkai wasn't feeling well and needed to be kept warm and properly taken care of?

Someone sat down next to Catherine and hugged her, looking over she saw that it was Katrina. "Katrina—" Catherine's voice broke and she began to cry, "Katrina, you shouldn't be out of bed." Katrina hugged Catherine tighter and silently sobbed into her shoulder. Catherine sensed others gathering around Genkai's body but she just stared down as her tears were captured by gravity and fell to the floor.

After everyone had composed themselves and called Yusuke and the others, they began discussing what they should do about Genkai's body. Cremation was the obvious choice but they wanted to wait until everyone was present and they could read her Will before making arrangements; in case Genkai had already had something planned out. Everyone was sitting sedately in the living room while waiting for the others. Kurama had his arm around Katrina, Ritsu fidgeting in her lap; Botan and Yukina were hugging and crying again; Hiei sat on a windowsill and Catherine lay on the floor staring at the ceiling, a blank look on her face.

Ritsu had had enough of this depressing atmosphere, jumping down he ran off to try and find something fun to do. Katrina just sighed and let him be; looking down at Catherine she wondered what was going through her best friend's mind. She didn't know how she would handle the death of a loved one- heck- she didn't even know how close Cat was to Genkai. "Catherine," she whispered; the first sound to break the silence that had been growing for the past hour. Catherine turned her blank stare on Katrina, "Hmm?"

"Could we go outside and talk?" Catherine just nodded and slowly got up following her limping best friend out of the living room.

Once outside on the veranda Katrina smiled a little despite herself, it was a gorgeous sunny day with a gentle breeze, a perfect day to leave the world of the living behind. Catherine hopped up onto the railing and looked off into the distance. Carefully Katrina pulled herself up next to her friend; grimacing a little as her ribs and leg protested. "Are you okay?"

". . ."

"Cat, please answer me, I want to know how you're doing; I've never seen you like this… not even-"

"Kat, don't bring that up. I'm- I'll be okay. It's just… hard. I mean, out of everyone we know, Genkai was the one I thought would out live us all. Heh; and I never imagined saving your life would bring the end of hers." Katrina's head shot around to give Catherine a surprised look, "What do you mean?"

"Oh- s*&%- I didn't mean to- I- Forget I said anything okay?"

"No, tell me what you're talking about?" Catherine sighed and looked down, swinging her feet a little before reluctantly answering Katrina. "When I brought you back… you were in really bad shape and Genkai healed you; Yukina started out helping but Genkai kicked her out pretty early on. She was in your room working for a long time. When she finally left she looked really worn out; Yukina asked if she was okay and Genkai said she just needed some time to rest. The next day I woke up late and freaked, thinking Genkai was going to kill me. Just cause I saved you doesn't excuse me from getting up early and training. But she didn't get on my case about it. In fact, she hadn't even left her room since the day before after taking care of you.

Yukina went in to check on her and later said that Genkai really wasn't looking too well. We were a little concerned but I didn't really think much of it. She was old and had used up a lot of energy making sure you didn't… didn't die. Today, when she still wasn't looking any better I decided I need to get out for a while and clear my head. All this stress and sadness was really getting to me; then you woke up and I was happy and I wanted to talk about something more light-hearted like stupid movies or something but I knew Kurama had been waiting long enough and was really worried about you. So I called him and let you two have quality time. I decided I could spend time with you later and went out for a walk with Bruno, wondering if I might run into Hiei and be able to talk to him… more of a one sided conversation but it would've been something.

Then Botan showed up calling for us sounding all distressed and I knew something had to be wrong for Botan to be here and fretting so much to boot. Now… you're all caught up. But don't you DARE blame yourself for what happened to Genkai, she admitted herself, all the time that she was old. It was just her- her time to go and—" Catherine started to choke up again but fought it, "and she's probably annoyed at us for crying like a bunch of sissy-babies with no control over our emotions."

Katrina was about to respond when Yusuke shouted at them from the gate entrance to Genkai's temple. Trying to turn and see everyone walking up Katrina lost her balance and fell off the veranda railing; hitting the ground a few feet bellow she choked in pain. Catherine jumped down next to her, a panicked look on her face. "Kat, are you okay?"

"Ju- ust a little winded… and sore," Katrina replied holding back tears; she really needed a pain-killer right then. Keiko came running over to them and helped Catherine help Katrina to sit up yelling at Yusuke as she did, "Yusuke, you idiot!"

"What did I do? She's the one who wasn't paying attention and lost her balance," he yelled back indignantly. The two broke off into a screaming match as Kuwabara, Shizuru and Daiku walked towards the veranda.

"Even when a close friend dies those two can find something to fight over," Shizuru sighed; taking Keiko's place in help Katrina.

After some more shouting from Yusuke and Keiko, Catherine and Botan had had enough and warned them to shut up and be respectful. It worked, they both went silent and waited for whatever was to happen next; Shizuru retrieved Genkai's Will and began reading it to everyone.

*"'To whom it matters…'"

"That doesn't sound very promising," Yusuke interrupted.

"'By the time this document is read…'"

"Hmph," Yusuke grumbled and received at swift slap to the back of the head from Keiko.

"'However I'll assume everyone concerned is alive and well. Cutting to the chase, I bequeath to you all the land around my temple. The requisite paperwork is in a safety deposit box in ABC Bank, XYZ Branch. The property is a two hour drive from the nearest town. Not exactly convenient but not my problem. The point is it's a perfect refuge for demons. Leave it in its natural state if you can.'"*

-/-/-/-/-

Two weeks after the reading of Genkai's Will and her funeral Catherine and Katrina were busy packing and preparing to move into their new house in the country just outside Yusuke's town. "It feels so weird to be moving out again so soon, doesn't it?" Katrina asked as she helped load the small moving truck.

"Yeah, it does, I mean, it's just over a year since we came here. In fact, thinking about it, yesterday was the anniversary of our arrival here."

"Wow, our nineteenth birthdays both spent in another dimension… weird. Hey, have you seen Ritsu?"

"Yeah, I think he and Bruno were playing under the veranda over there," Catherine pointed vaguely to her left.

"It's great that those two are getting along so well, especially since they're going to be living together for the foreseeable future."

Kurama and Daiku walked up and asked if the girls had everything and were ready to go; they called Bruno and Ritsu over and then split up. Catherine was teaching Daiku how to drive and the cab of the moving truck was too small for four people and two animals. Opening the back door to her car, Ms. Widow*, Catherine let Bruno jump in then she proceeded toward the driver's side only to find her boyfriend already occupying that seat. "Well, uh… y'know I'm pretty sure you're not legally allowed to drive yet; so out, still passenger seat for you. Bye Kat, see ya at the new place," Catherine called as Daiku got out and headed for the passenger seat.

"Cya der," Katrina called back as she hopped into the cab and Ritsu hopped onto her lap.

Catherine started reviewing random things about driving with Daiku as they left Genkai's temple. She didn't know what else to call it now that Genkai was gone… the surrounding land now belonged to Yusuke and the gang but the temple still felt like Genkai's. Genkai had told Botan before she left that the girls were allowed to continue living in the temple if they chose to as long as they left everything the way it was as much as they were able to. Pu still lives there and now it's kind of open to any demons needing a place to crash. For Catherine and Katrina it just felt too awkward to live there now that Genkai was gone and they had the money to move into their own place; so that's what they decided to do. Catherine had teased Katrina about the two of them living together in their own place instead of Katrina moving in with Kurama. Katrina 'Gibbs-ed'* her and laughed, saying, "You know very well that I'm not moving in with any guy! I will live with a guy after I'm married to him and that's it. What about you and Daiku, you never seemed to have an aversion to moving in with your boyfriend if it ever came to that?"

"I have no problem living with my boyfriend, no; but Daiku's only fif- well sixteen now. Besides, I don't want to move in with someone unless I'm absolutely sure we're going to be living together for a long time. Daiku and I… I think we might break-up soon. I'm sure we'll still be friends but… he just feels more like a little brother than a boyfriend. And he's still a sophomore in high school while you and I are freshmen in college… grade/age-wise. I think he agrees with me on that too, I can tell he wants to discuss something important but is waiting for the right moment to bring it up."

That 'right moment' seemed to have arrived as Catherine spotted a nice little park to take Bruno out and let him run around and relieve himself. So, telling Daiku her plan, Catherine parked and let Bruno out following him to a nice sunny spot on a small hill. "Cat, can we… um… I have something really important I wanted to talk to you about and I think now's the best time."

"Shoot, I'm listeni- Bruno! Get back here you giant goof!" Daiku sat down in front of Catherine and when he was sure he had her full attention, finally said what he'd been dying to for a couple of weeks. "Cat, I think we should break-up. I mean, I like you and all but… you just feel like well, a big sister to me. Like Katrina, you two feel more like family so… it feels kinda weird. And I'm only sixteen and you're nineteen, not much of an age difference but—"

"Daiku, don't panic, I was thinking the same thing, you've become more like a little brother to me than anything else. After everything you went through, five years in captivity and then suddenly meeting a hot, awesome chick like me," Catherine laughed at herself. "I'm cool with being friends, if you want to be friends that is."

"Of course, I'm so glad you understand! It just felt so weird and I really want to enjoy my life and take a shot at being single for a bit. Plus I'm sure you'd prefer to go out and meet someone more your own age. You're an adult now and I still have years left and I want to enjoy that, not feel like I have to grow up so fast after being trapped for so long. So, we're cool, just brother and sister kinda thing? Nothing weird, we can still be friends?"

"Sounds great to me," Catherine smiled, "glad to hear we're on the same page and got that cleared up. So, ready to go?"

"Yep, I'm sure Katrina will kill us if we leave the furniture moving to her and Kurama."

"Alright, let's go; Bruno, time to go bud!"

Ritsu bounced around a little in Katrina's lap as the moving truck slowly pulled away from Genkai's temple following Ms. Widow. Katrina smiled down at the hyper kit and laughed, "Ritsu, we've just left, could you settle down for a little while?"

"But, Mommy, it's so exciting! I've never ridden in one of these things before; what's it called again?"

"Ritsu, please call me Katrina or Kat. I'm not your Mom. And it's called a moving van," Katrina replied a little frustrated with Ritsu's insistence on calling her 'Mommy'.

"You're my Mommy and he's my Daddy," Ritsu motioned with his muzzle towards Kurama. "And that's what I'm gonna call ya. Besides, Daddy told me no one else can understand me so why does it matter what I call you," Ritsu said defiantly as he glared at Katrina. Katrina sighed, he was right, no one else could understand him, so what _did _it matter what he called her?

Why did he calling her 'Mommy' bother her so much? Was it because she'd practically raised her own siblings and she was tired of feeling like a mother?* That for at least a few years she wanted a break from 'raising' someone; was that too much to ask?* She had decided when she was younger she absolutely _did not_ want children, whether adopted or not, she was tired of taking care of others.* But looking down at Ritsu's defiant black face, she couldn't hold back a small chuckle, he was just too cute; *and try as she might to get a break from taking care of others it was in her nature. So, sighing to cover up the chuckle, she replied, "oh, alright, I'll quit trying to get you to change how you address me. You can call me 'Mommy', but only because I love you."

Ritsu's face lit up and he propped himself up to lick Katrina's face, then he climbed up behind her neck and curled around her, yawning. "You can use me as a pillow, if you want to, Mommy," he said sleepily. All of his excited energy quickly drained. Kurama looked over and smiled as Katrina gently took Ritsu up on his offer. She was pretty tired from moving furniture and knew she'd only have more work to do once they'd arrived at her new home. Taking one hand off of the steering-wheel he gently petted Ritsu's head then trailed his hand down Katrina's arm to hold her hand as she drifted off into contented sleep.

**A/N:** The asterisks around the reading of the Will are almost word for word from volume nineteen of Yu Yu Hakusho, I edited only where it said 'Yusuke interrupted.' And 'Yusuke grumbled and received at swift slap to the back of the head from Keiko.' In order to let you know who was speaking since you don't have the visual from the book. And I did leave out some more interruptions because in the book you don't see who they're coming from. More likely than no they were from Yusuke but because I couldn't be sure I didn't want to add them.

The second asterisk *Ms. Widow is the real name my friend (whom Catherine is based on) gave her car and I thought it would be a fun(ny) little fact to toss into the story. (=^.^=)

Third asterisk: For those who don't get the 'Katrina 'Gibbs-ed'* her' allusion it's alluding to Gibbs from NCIS a really awesome TV show my Dad watches and I sometimes watch too. Gibbs comes up behind DiNozzo (I don't know how to spell his name, sorry. v-v') and slap him on the back of the head when he would do or say something stupid… which was often. XD

The asterisks in the second to last paragraph are there because this is how my life has been and I really feel. No matter how hard I try to avoid taking care of others in any way, it seems my resistance fails me. I just love helping others however I can and usually find myself led to a position taking care of children… God sure does have a sense of humor. Cause every time I say 'that's it, I'm done working with children!' he just laughs and gives me something related to children to do. Whether it be volunteer work at church, my current job… Anything where a childcare person is needed badly enough I find myself caving and helping out.


End file.
